An online workshop focused on the project of the ‘Introduction of Kreol in the Mauritian Parliament’ was held, this afternoon, in the context of International Creole Day 2021. The webinar is a joint initiative of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the University of Mauritius, and the Creole Speaking Union (CSU).
The Dean of the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities and President of the CSU, Professor Arnaud Carpooran; as well as other representatives from the University of Mauritius (UoM), the University of Technology of Mauritius, the Open University of Mauritius (OUM), Université des Mascareignes (UDM), and the Mauritius Institute of Education (MIE) participated.
Several presentations were made by representatives from the four sub-committees set up in October 2020 to look into the technicalities as regards language terminology, variations of the creole language, training, and information dissemination. The speakers were Dr Beatrice Antonio-Francoise and Dr Shrita Hassamal from the MIE; Dr Yannick Bosquet, Mrs Christina Chan-Meetoo and Dr Baby Gobin from UoM; Mrs Aleesha Boola from UTM; and Mrs Sushita Neerbun from OUM; and Dr Neelam Pirbhai-Jeeta and Mr Pascal Boncoeur from UDM.
The project of the ‘Introduction of Kreol in the Mauritian Parliament’ was launched in the context of the celebrations of the of International Creole Day 2021 on 28 October 2020. During the webinar, the participants made an assessment of the research work undertaken by the different universities in the various sub-committees.
On his virtual intervention, Dr Carpooran recalled that the introduction of Kreol in the Mauritian Parliament was raised in Parliament in July 2020 adding that since, preparatory works are being undertaken to develop a mastery of a harmonised version of the Kreol Morisien which is being facilitated by Government through teaching and training.
He highlighted that four sub-committees have been set up in October 2020 comprising members from the CSU, University of Mauritius, Open University, University of Technology of Mauritius, and the Mauritius Institute of Education to look into the technicalities as regards language terminology, variations of the creole language, training, and information dissemination.
It is to be recalled that the Kreol Morisien which was introduced in primary schools in 2012 has been extended to Grades 7 and 8. The teaching of the subject has also been extended to Grade 9 in 2020 and is assessed at the level of the National Certificate of Education assessment in 2020-2021 at the end of Grade 9.
Progress has been made in terms of the elaboration of the orthography, grammar and vocabulary. In this regard, the following linguistic aids have already been published: lortograf Kreol Morisien, gramer Kreol Morisien and diksioner Kreol Morisien.
Moreover, an Akademi Kreol Repiblik Moris has been set up in May 2019 under the aegis of the Ministry of Education, Tertiary Education, Science and Technology, to follow up on the development and use of the Kreol language in the Republic of Mauritius. One of the objectives of the Akademi Kreol Repiblik Moris is to develop further the orthography, grammar, lexicon, usage and norms of the Kreol Morisien.
