The Primary Curriculum Framework(2007)

The Primary Curriculum Framework (2007)³⁵ was designed in line with the National Curriculum Framework for the Republic of Mauritius which echoes the overarching national curriculum goal “To promote equity and social justice by providing opportunities for every learner according to his/her needs, interests and potential” (2007, p. 11). The multicultural dimensions are present in the term „equity‟ and „social justice‟ where the school should provide

33 Many Hindu adhere to vegetarianism. Some are vegetarian in their daily life; other only during Hindu fasting days.

34 Muslims eat meat that has been through the Islamic slaughter. The school will provide for this meat only. And it is commonly known in Mauritius that Muslim eat halaal. Halaal meat is available in all supermarket. The other communities like Hindu or Christians do not mind to eat halaal food. For them, they don‟t see any different. And they don‟t mind if the Islamic rule has been applied during the slaughtering. This shows the acceptance of the different communities.

35http://www.ibe.unesco.org/curricula/mauritius/mf_prfw_2007_eng.pdf. Accessed date: 19th March 2015

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equal opportunity in a multicultural society to all cultural groups. And the role as a mean to foster unity is also stated “To foster national unity by promoting in the individual understanding of and respect for our multicultural heritage”(2007, p. 11).

In the section on the Asian and Arabic languages³⁶, the curriculum framework advocates that that exposure to multilingualism will foster students‟ exposure to cultural understanding. “In Mauritius, our strength will continue to reside in the sincere effort to allow multilingualism and pluriculturalism to flourish. The multilingual nature of our society opens a number of windows to look at the wider world. Knowing an additional language is a matter of enrichment, more so when the known languages belong to various and varied cultures” (2007, p. 66). The Asian languages are the ancestral languages of the different ethnic groups. These languages include Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Telegu, Marathi, and Mandarin. Arabic language is not the ancestral language of the Muslim. It is associated with Islam and is the language of their religion. But due to the demands of the parents and the students, the Ministry of Education has provided for this language at all schools. This also reflects the flexibility and tolerance of the Ministry. The government allocated two languages (Urdu and Arabic) to Muslim students who are a minority group. Each language is taught by teacher from that particular religion. For instance the Hindu language teacher will teach Hindi, the Telegu language teacher will teach Telegu and the Muslim langauge teacher will teach Arabic or Urdu(depending on the language in which he or she is specialised). In the case of the Muslims, because they have been allocated two languages two language teachers will be recruited from the Muslim community. This kind of situation doesn‟t

36 All these languages are optional. Whereas English and French are compulsory.Recently Mauritian kreol language has been introduced as a subject.

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create any friction in the school system. Other communities don‟t feel they are being unfairly treated. In the instance that there was a demand for Sanskrit, the religious language for the Hindu, the government would have done the same. Language attribution reflects the understanding, tolerance, and cooperation in the Mauritian Educational system. Besides these languages, all the other subjects are taught by teachers from various religious or ethnic groups.

Therefore a Muslim teacher can teach Maths or can teach science. The majority of the religious or ethnic group in the class doesn‟t influence the recruitment of the teacher based on religion.

For example, it‟s not because the majority of the students are Hindu, the government will recruit teachers that are from that religious group to teach academic subjects like Science, French, English or History.

Furthermore, the Primary Curriculum Framework has taken into consideration a number of changes and issues while designing the curriculum. It has focused on an inclusive and integrated approach of the students. “The social and cultural fabrics are undergoing radical transformations and, as such, our youth need to be equipped with the necessary knowledge, skills and values to ensure social cohesion and national unity”(2007, p. 6).

The government officially uses the terms „social cohesion‟ and „national unity‟ and links these concepts throughout the educational system. To promote the ethnic diversity and national cohesion, the government proposed a curriculum that will shift from subject-centred to child-centred, from compartmentalized to an integrated approach to teaching and learning. Thus, the school curriculum provides to the Mauritian students the possibility to learn and respect the national values upon which the Mauritian society is built. One of the subjects in the primary curriculum is known as Value-Education. One of the key components include to teach students about Mauritius as a populace with many origins but all united with tolerance and respect of

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others‟ cultural belief and lifestyle (2007, p. 100). History and Geography subjects in the primary level have as a key objective that students will “Develop attitudes of social sensitivity like empathy, tolerance, and understanding the richness of a multicultural society” (2007, p. 113).

One example of practical work for History on the theme of Our locality asks students to:

-Identify places of cultural and historical interest and draw a plan.

-Visit places of interest in the locality/region and carry out activities related to the visit -Write, Draw, Communicate in a variety of way (2007, p. 115)

In the Education Report in Action (2008-2014) by the Ministry of Education and Human Resources, the government gave further information regarding the integration of intercultural education in school activities. The former Minister of Education Dr V.Bunwaree said regarding the Intercultural Education project (ICE) that “Educating a multicultural nation in all its diversity is never an easy and stress-free venture but it is also a unique and lifetime experience, especially if the net finality and outcome is to make the system stand out as a model in the world” (2014, p.

IV). The government wanted to design a unique system in term of Intercultural Education, which was adapted to the Mauritian context and could be further used as a blueprint in other multicultural countries. Furthermore, the new Minister of Education, Mrs Dookun-Luchoomun, in the recent Educational reform: National Curriculum Framework 2015 also stressed the importance of implementing Intercultural Education as this will help to determine the kind of society we will see evolving, as the ultimate purpose of Intercultural Education is to ensure harmonious coexistence among different cultures.

Through Intercultural education for cultural diversity, the objectives are to develop respect for diversity, promoting teaching which respects diversity of values, knowledge, culture

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and tradition. The following is a summary of the Intercultural Education program³⁷ from the report:

Innovative Programme: Intercultural Education

The philosophy behind the Intercultural Education is to enable learners to inculcate a deeper understanding of one another, acceptance of the differences based on ethnicity, religion, race and culture, but also realise that the differences are a catalyst towards sustaining the country in its unflagging pursuit of peace and harmonious co-habitation.

The introduction of Intercultural Education in schools fits in with Jacques Delors‟

“Learning to Live Together” --which is one of the pillars on which education for the 21st Century has to be based. Actions in the Intercultural Education domain are in line with the New Curriculum Framework that states that the curriculum should develop interpersonal knowledge and skills with a view to strengthening positive attitudes, understanding and sharing of common values and also developing respect for persons and human rights.

Intercultural Education was initiated in 2010 under the aegis of the M.I.E.

The project took the shape of an exhibition and was addressed to all Mauritian pupils of primary schools.

37 Appendix F include a copy of the brochure and poster which were distributed to the primary schools regarding Intercultural Education . The objectives of IE laid high emphasis on the positive exposure of students towards diversity. The brochure and poster also reflected the Mauritian multicultural society; both were very colourful. The poster was written in three languages which reflected the multilingual aspects of this small island.

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2011 “Tous parents tous différents – ena enn sel ras, ras dimounn” was launched as a national competition for Standards IV and V pupils of Mauritian and Rodriguan Primary schools

The children expressed themselves on this issue through different means, such as paintings and drawing, poetry and short stories, theatrical performances, slam and songs.

2013: Nou Kiltir Nou Rises

This project aims, inter alia, at creating awareness about the rich cultural diversity in our society, and encourages pupils to artistically demonstrate their understanding of inter-culturalism and associated concepts like respect, love, peace, etc. They can express themselves through the medium of

• Art (painting and drawing)

• Theatre • Music (Songs and Dance)

• Slam

As at date, 37 schools and 210 pupils have participated in the above project. The project culminates in an “Intercultural Day” projected for the end of the third term annually.

The above described exhibition was the starting point for the national competition “Tous parents tous différents – ena en selras, ras dimoun” based on the same theme of intercultural dialogue. Information on the Intercultural Education Project was gathered during the fieldwork in 2015 at the MIE. Mr J.Ramsaha, one of the team members of this project, provided details on the activities in line with the promotion of Intercultural Education during the structured interview session with him. The raw data collected from The Intercultural Education Project has enabled to understand the learner‟s interpretation on the concept. The students creatively expressed their

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understanding of interculturalism through the following: songs, poems, drama, short stories, drawing, painting and slam. This was addressed to all pupils of Standard IV and V of Mauritian and Rodriguan³⁸ primary schools. The posters offer a learning experience to be explored by teachers and students and were meant to promote the development of cultural understanding among primary school students and create an awareness of the common human heritage that cuts across cultures and civilizations. The children were then invited to express themselves on that issue through different media, such as paintings and drawing, poetry and short stories, theatre, slam and songs. The competition was held at two levels: zone and national. A cash prize was offered to all winners in each category at both levels. A prize giving ceremony, held on Thursday 29 September 2014, closed the event with a show organised to present the works of the winners in each category. Their aim was to bring to all these young pupils, on a pedagogical basis, an awareness of the need for an intercultural way of living.

However, Ramsaha also shared the feedbacks he gathered before and after the project

“Still there was a general feeling that the main objective, which was to raise awareness of cultural diversity and the need for intercultural dialogue, was not achieved. Most of the participant complained about the complexity of the concept of Interculturalism.” Intercultural Education is a new concept for them. The diverse cultures have been cohabitating together at school without going deeper into intercultural understanding. Both students and teachers complained that the information vehicle in the posters were too complex for them to understands.

Many participants thought Intercultural Education is about promoting mixed marriage among different cultures due to the theme „we are part of the same family‟. Ramsaha further added that

38Rodrigues is an autonomous outer island of the Republic of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean

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“This led to various misinterpretations by the participants and by the teachers themselves, who had the responsibility to guide their pupils”

For the Intercultural Education Project, primary teachers were selected from 37 schools and were required to attend a short-term training³⁹on Intercultural Education. Their training was based on two points:

1.) Explaining the concept of Intercultural Education 2.) Being an Intercultural Speaker

The focus of the training was on the concept of Intercultural Education and the ability to differentiate between multi and intercultural education. As the Ministry has assigned the role of Intercultural Speaker⁴⁰ to the teachers, they will be the ones preparing the students to participate in the Intercultural Education Project and therefore they should be in a position to convey the intercultural concept to the students. Dr Putchay, the team leader of the Intercultural Education Project mentioned that during the short term training, the teachers expressed that they don‟t have any understanding of Intercultural Education. It was a new concept for them. It was for the first time that the M.I.E organized a formal short term course on Intercultural Education.

There was previously no formal intercultural learning in the National Curriculum Framework for the Primary section. However, there is a holistic approach to social cohesion, through intercultural encounters at the schools and in few subjects, as well as a few innovative projects on Intercultural Education introduced by the Ministry.

39 A handout- copy of the teacher training on the Intercultural Education Project has been attached to the Appendix E

40 The concept of Intercultural Speaker has been used in the context of foreign language teaching. (Byram;1997, Kramsch 1998)

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