87 public schools are under threat of losing months of income. Four associations of Managers are moving forward under a new front, the New Federation of Managers, with the full support of the Diocesan Service of Catholic Education SEDEC to keep public schools alive and functioning. The outcome of the last meeting on Thursday 28th at St Joseph’s College in Curepipe is conclusive, they will not accept this total financial management by the Private Secondary Education Authority (PSEA).
The discording Circular
If they were already were in tolerance mode with the PSEA for a multitude of reasons, the latest circular of October 15 by the said body leads them to bite back! This Circular of Discord orders the Union of Managers of Secondary Schools, Managers of Private Secondary Schools Union, Roman Catholic Secondary Schools Union and Association of Confessional Secondary Schools and SEDEC, that is the 87 private secondary schools, to justify each of their current expenses, to submit the Project Plan of each intended development and to wait for approval from PSEA before they can go ahead with it.
A 40% reduction estimated
In addition, as Ramdass Ellayah, President of the Mauritius Private Secondary School Union (MPSSU), puts it, “there is a minimum 40% reduction in the Block Grant for each school concerned. This especially includes all those loans that schools have taken for structure, sports areas, laboratories among others to provide the same benefits and opportunities that are offered in the SSS. It is a lot of money for loans and a big shortfall in monthly earnings,” he says.
Taking the example of Bhujoharry College in Port Louis, which Ramdass Ellayah owns, the loan is around Rs 70 million for a block grant of 700,000 where this reduction will be made and Operational Grant is up to Rs 80,000 where every expenditure will have to be declared to the penny. “With this new development, we all wonder if the PSEA and especially its Director, Mr. Luchoomun, really have any idea about the real functioning of a private secondary school which has sports gymnasiums, football fields, laboratories among other facilities suitable for the subjects. It would have been better for them to have taken an interest before coming up with such impositions in the management, not to say control, of finances. The dialogues and exchanges amount to circulars on decisions. The PSEA’s stranglehold on the 87 private colleges will prevent us from functioning at all,” says Ramdass Ellayah. The total control and especially the downward revision of their grants since 1976 are holding them back.
History of the Grants
For the record, with the decision to provide free education in 1976, the government of the day opted to give public schools a hand by taking over a percentage of student fees and teachers’ salaries in a form of a 35% grant. In 1989 the formula also included ease on building expenses including renovations and improvements, sports facilities and laboratories among other specialised areas. In 2016 it was the cumulation of all grants, at a certain percentage of course, into a Block Grant and a Grant for Operations costs. Currently the Block Grant is 40% less, not to mention the control of finances by the PSEA.
“Will we be able to run these 87 schools, as we should, work on new projects in the interest of the education of our future adults and keep up with the practices in the education system under such imposed conditions? These are the impositions that motivate our steps towards this resistance” concludes Ramdass Ellayah. The resistance will not back down!
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Delta Variant Psychosis
The rate of absenteeism is climbing in the colleges. At the last count since 18 October, “the percentage is 10 to 15% in the larger classes and 15 to 25% in the smaller ones. The reason for this is the psychosis created among pupils and their parents by the circulation of the Delta variant. And especially since the death of teacher Jahangeer of the QEC, the fear is also felt by the teachers. Moreover, with the lack of clarity on the realities of the situation of Covid in the schools, in the country as a whole and the circulation of the Delta variant, many are asking for the closure of schools, we can only understand” says Bhojeparsad Jhugdumby, President of the UPSEE.
