| | The underprivileged and the language issue | | | | Modifier la taille du texte: | A | | | A | | |
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| | Par:- Surendra Bissoondoyal
On 04/03/2010 |
“There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy”. These are words that Shakespeare had put in the mouth of Hamlet when addressing Horatio some 400 years ago, but which are still relevant today. We are sometimes told that specialists know more and more about less and less. This is the feeling that we get when we follow the debate on the use of Kreol as the medium of instruction or as a subject to be studied on its own in the school curriculum.
Common sense dictates that the transmission of knowledge has to proceed from the known to the unknown. There is no quarrel about that, and the language of the environment has to be used in the early years during which a child is being educated. But we should not lose sight of the larger picture.
Why is there such a high rate of failure among children from the underprivileged classes of society at the end of the primary cycle? It cannot be just a question of the medium of instruction. These children come from families who have to worry about the conditions under which they live rather than schooling and education for their children. These social and economic conditions- poverty, unemployment, broken families, decrepit housing in an insalubrious environment, abuse of alcohol and drugs-have made them despair of seeing a brighter future for themselves and their children.
We have to admit that the socio-economic conditions of the deprived classes of Mauritian society are a bigger stumbling block to their progress than just a question of using Kreol at school. Radio One is currently engaged in a laudable initiative to provide-with contributions from the public at large-decent housing to ten among the most deprived families.
If such an example could be followed by other fi rms -with the State doing what it has to do- the road to education and progress would be more accessible. In the fi eld of education proper there are many ways in which the problem of failure can be addressed. A good preschool education in decent surroundings, reinforced by useful resources and appropriate pedagogy for children between the ages of 3 and 5 will give them the start required on their voyage of discovery.
The use of the language of environment (Kreol, Bhojpuri or any other language) and incentives to encourage them to come to school (like food and educational toys) are equally important. But it would be wrong, however, to continue using Kreol or Bhojpuri as the medium of instruction after a certain stage in their educational development has been reached. Kreol and Bhojpuri are spoken languages which are full of imagery. Primary school teachers can make good use of such imagery. So will writers and singers, not to mention politicians addressing public gatherings.
We should also be aware that many Mauritian families who were uneducated and unemployed made heavy sacrifices over the past sixty years or so by emigrating to UK and France in order to secure a better future for themselves and their children. Their spattering of English and French helped them to overcome the initial barriers on their way to a better future. Their small children, who got “immersed” in the new environment, mainly through schooling, picked up English or French in a matter of months and found it easier to communicate with their parents in the newly acquired language. This is also part of education, which leads to socioeconomic mobility. Our ancestors who came to Mauritius realized this and their descendants have now become very proficient in many languages, including Englishand French, which is a great asset in the world today. There are also many Mauritian writers who have made their mark on the international scene, particularly in French and Hindi.
We tend however to believe that the whole world revolves around us and refuse to see how an early acquisition of English and French will help our children fi nd a useful place for themselves in the global village of tomorrow. We also continue to ignore how other languages like Mandarin, Arabic, Hindi and others are fast becoming important in the fi elds of communication and commerce. All the components of the Mauritian population have adopted Kreol to communicate among themselves, which is a very important element of the Mauritian identity. But we should also realize that a mastery of languages which are more important internationally will give us an edge over countries which do not have the same advantage that we have in our learning environment.
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| sabrina | | | Louloudevil - Ne soyez pas faché par l'opinion de quelqu'un qui est fier d'exposer ses betises. Il faut une certaine
perspicacité pour decouvrir l'intelligence d'une personne ou son imbecilité.. Il y a des Scandinaves qui parlent couramment plusieurs langues, y compris le Francais. Une etoile n'est pas toujours brillante! | | | Starbright | | | To Louloudevil. Nobody speaks french in Scandinavia mate. You must be joking.I've been living for a very long time to know that. | | | sabrina | | | Pourquoi cette pagaille concernant le Kreol comme un sujet obligatoire a l'enseignement primaire? Ce n'est meme pas
une langue mais que du baragouin!. Le Kreol m'est une nouvelle decouverte, je trouve que c'est un moyen de communication
phonetique, difficile a lire en comparaison au Patois, qui est derive du mauvais Francais ou tous les verbes sont a
l'infinitif, mais le patois est facile a lire pour ceux qui parlent le Francais, on reconnait les mots et litteralement
leurs sens. Pour lire le "nouveau" Kreol, il faut d'abord le parler (a tel point que quelqu'un a ete force de fabriquer
un dictionnaire du Kreol) Le Francais et l'Anglais comme langues obligatoires seront plus avantageux pour les BAMBINS a
l'ecole primaire.
| | | louloudevil | | | The Scandinavian countries use their mother tongue right from day one at school. Yet they managed to speak French and English fluently; I do have a few colleagues at work. The debate is not about favouring our mother tongue against French or English, that’s not the point and let’s keep an open mind about it. Learning a second and a third language is a prerequisite in these days of globalisation, that’s a given.
I have spoke recently to a speech therapist and she reckoned that the issue of not using mother tongue may lead to various problem such as auditory processing problem, phonics,…
| | | Triptophan | | | Not only in the Caribbean but also in Martinique we see the artful emergence of NATION LANGUAGE: the naturally occurring ‘underground language’ of a people subjected to foreign domination and so-called superior languages ( English and French in our case). In our own country our Nation Language has principally taken the poetic form . Consider the impact that the works of Dev Virahsawmy and the myriad lyrics from artists such as Bam Cuttayen, Grup Latanier, Siven Chinien, etc etc. have already had in defining our identity as a people. I do not know of any Mauritian who is not moved by the song Krapo Kriye of the Jogana brothers. As the writer says our national language is full of imagery. Is it not some achievement that the songs from Zozo Mayok and Chanda Mama are being utilised as resources of language development in our Prevoc-Bec? One must not believe that time spent learning our national language is time wasted. Quite the contrary learning in any language is learning acquired, and the more languages one learns the better his/her understanding of all…under the “magic” process of transfer of learning. As a people, and as a nation we need a common language which is not only an expression of our identity but also of our unity. I am sorry to say that right now it feels that our “allegiance” is all over the place. We are like a nation without a sense of direction. It does not make sense that we have to teach our children English and French so that they can emigrate! | | | brijjb | | | Debate to introduce Kreol as a medium of teaching (as if it never had been used) is more communo-political than pedagogical or nation building. So many arguments against yet some are still convinced that Kreol should be introduced ... ! So many of our students hardly manage with English & French, languages that contribute so much to our tourism sector . I am convinced that the minister of tourism must say he is against introduction of kreol if he wants foreign tourist! Will not say more about the issue is like giving importance to nonsense! | | | Kris | | | In our small island, our small nation is suffering so much from an egoistic syndrome that certain groups boasting to hold the universal truth spring out to impose their views as to which remedy should be applied to the failure issue in our primary education.For sure, one's mother tongue is helpful means to facilitate understanding while learning takes place. But it should not be forgotten that it also poses as a hindrance not to sky a threat to learning to use a foreign language. It's sad we have not been able to adopt English or French as our national language during almost 200 years, our colonisers having been British and French. We have miserable failed to do so. Our common citizens have been fooled by our local so-called intelligentsia.
We should look outward and not inward. Paul and Virginie's world was our small island whereas ours is the whole universe. We should not retard our progress in learning foreign languages due to the whims of certain groups however vociferous they might be. Is it why in Mauritius that children are experiencing failures. Children in UK and France, don't they fail? If yes, why then? Language is not the only issue. There are many causes that affect effective learning at school. Being too hysterical and effecting a simplistic assessment will never help reduce the rate of failure. We all are and should be concerned about the issue. Allow me to repeat that mother tongue, whichever it may be or whosever it may be, is not the solution. However it will be laudable to allow those who wish to learn their mother tongue be it creole or bhojpuri. And what about introducing Sanskrit as an effective subject in both primary and secondary schools? | | | Sylvia Edouard | | | Our mother tongue whether it's Creole or Bhojpuri is our pride and our identity. It's the daily recognition of who we are and where we come from. As regards to education, yes it's a fact that the mother tongue is the best medium to acquire knowledge especially for young children. Shall we deprive our young generation of this right? Do we have this right to do so? What mother tongue, that is the problem. Mauritius should have enough resources and skills to offer language support to all our children. If it means supporting children in more than one mother tongue, fair enough. It should not be seen as an obstacle but rather an asset that would ensure that our children are learning and affirming and mastering their first language would definitely help them to acquire and why not master other global languages such as English or French. | | | MoralScientist | | | What Mr. Bissoondoyal writes is simple common sense. But common sense is not THAT common. And there are many raving-mad people among us, who believe that we are conspiring against them when we formulate such a common-sense proposition. Excuse me for being so frankspoken, but there is also no reason, a priori, to believe that the representation of such unreasoable people among the Clergy would be less, proportionately, than in the general public. | | | jimmy | | | You seem to make the case we should manufacture global citizens end export them with no return for our country.Is Mauritius just a springboard for going abraod? To use it as door mat for climbing the ladder? This is dangerous. Look, all those you are taliking about never come back and do not give a cent back to us. We need an adequation with our local demands we need qualified people, not endless lawyers and so forth. So creole is the right medium for our mauritians who like their country and will stay here and work for their country...we need great cooks,hairdressers basically to fill demand in tourism, manufacturing industries, and so on.SO excuse me mauritus is not a doormat for your self promotion in life.We do not have car industries to compete on global village.Let me tell you: global village is a pure fiction, there is more for us to gain by regionalistion we are africans first and this is our village.So put your knowledge of archaic english at bay,and let us move forward. No one is holdding you to send your children in private schools in India or China... | | | Burn-it | | | Emiliano Z a raison. Pour pouvoir résider dans certains pays, en Europe par exemple, il est exigé que celui/celle qui fait la demande pour un titre de séjour sache maîtriser la langue du pays d'accueil. Au cas où la personne ne connaît pas la langue, elle doit suivre des cours et absolument progresser, car si au bout d'un certain temps, elle n'est pas arrivée au niveau requis, la porte de sortie lui sera indiquée. Nous sommes fiers à Maurice de pouvoir nous exprimer dans plusieurs langues et avec l'Anglais comme langue officielle, un européen qui veut s'installer à Maurice n'aura aucune difficulté à le faire car il n'aura pas à passer des examens en Kreol ou en Bhojpuri... | | | Yashna | | | Bravo!! You have brilliantly expressed what I feel about the whole situation. If the use of english and french is indeed such a barrier to education, how did those thousands of immigrants' children who knew neither of these two languages manage to complete the whole cycle, many with flying colours? For a child to succeed, the parents must provide a stable, conducive environment. 30% fail because their parents fail to do so. | | | Raj Put | | | On parle de langue d'enseignement dans laquelle l'enfant est très a l'aise, ou il se sent chez lui, et comprend son identité... Le point fondamental, c'est de trouver une langue qui lui donne l'occasion de se developper et comprendre ....Et pour cela, la langue maternelle est la meilleure mais a Maurice, le Gouvernement et les certains socio-culturels nous ont volé ce droit d'emancipation..UN POINT C'EST TOUT... | | | Emiliano Z | | | Early acquisition of French and English at home would in effect become the child's first language, thus Kreol would not be needed. And without it, Mauritians would be simply be rattling off a Mauritian version of French and English. No problems with French, English or any other language for that matter as a second language, but as a first language, it becomes self-destructive. It destroys the Mauritian identity and dooms us into forever playing catch-up to other people's cultures and languages, which most will never quite master. Come to think of it, i don't know of any country willing to sacrifice its own language in favour of another's. | |
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