Implementing the IAGs and
Commitments in regard to
Education
National Voluntary Presentation
Dr V. K. Bunwaree
Minister of Education & Human Resources
MAURITIUS
July 2011
Situating Mauritius
• Mauritius development policies are anchored in the
country’s vision of a future that is prosperous for All
promoted by an inclusive society where there is a myriad
of opportunities and equality of treatment.
• Achievement of this vision is centered on the mission of
putting people first to ensure inclusive development.
• Mauritius has one of the most generous welfare systems
in Africa.
Providing free health care and free education, among
others.
• Well on its way to attain its target with regard to the
Millennium Development Goal in the field of education.
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Situating Mauritius
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Per capita income: 7,500 USD
the strongest performer on ‘Doing Business’ in the region
72nd position on the Human Development Index
45th position on the Human Poverty Index.
57th position on the Global Competitiveness Index (2008-2009)
– 55th position in 2010-2011 (World Economic Forum)
• 73rd position in the Global Innovation Index (2009/2010)
overall rankings with a GII score of 2.93.
• 2nd in Africa on ICT Development Index (IDI)
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 2010
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The Human Development Index
• The HDI for
Mauritius, between
1980 and 2010, rose
by 1.0% annually
from 0.525 to 0.701
in 2010, which gives
Mauritius a rank of
72 out of 169
countries with
comparable data
Focus- RoadMap
1. Policy Successes
2. Policy Challenges & Constraints
3. Emerging Challenges
4. Support of Partners
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Policy Successes (1)
Our policies have contributed to the near
achievement of the MDGs, w.r.t
1. Hunger and Poverty alleviation
2. Free and Compulsory Basic Education For All
3. Gender equality
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Policy Successes /Intervention: Beyond Traditional
Social Safety Nets (1)
Focus on ‘pro-poor’ growth.
Strategies
•Trust Fund for Vulnerable Groups -1995
•Empowerment Programme – 2006
•National Empowerment Fund - 2010
•Ministry of Social Integration - 2010
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Policy Successes/Intervention: Beyond Traditional
Social Safety Nets (2)
Focus on ‘pro-poor’ growth.
Objectives of the Empowerment Program
•securing viable employment for the currently unemployed due to industry
restructuring;
•encouraging entrepreneurship and improving the capacity and
competitiveness of small entrepreneurs, especially in the global market to
improve export competitiveness (SMEs)
•providing transitional support to low-income and vulnerable households
for housing ; and
•enhancing education of the children in the most vulnerable households.
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Policy Successes/ Intervention: Beyond
Traditional Social Safety Nets (3)
The Support to Unemployed Women Program
Training and reskilling of retrenched workers
The Support to Education of children from poor families
Pre-Primary school fees
Free lunches
Transportation
Medical examinations
School materials
‘Accompagnement scolaire’.
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Policy Successes/Intervention: Beyond Traditional
Social Safety Nets (4)
Alternative to Social Aid that includes existing and new
programs at the National Empowerment Fund like:
•Training Programs to enhance employability, including life
skills training
•Provision of crèche facilities and after school care child
minding services to release parents, especially mothers to
undertake income generating activities
•Ensuring well-being of the family with special focus on care
and education of children
•Upgrading the living environment of the beneficiaries
•Promoting harmonious community living
•Social housing with good living conditions
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Policy Successes: Education
•Education has been free through the secondary level since 1977 and
also for FT undergraduate programs at the University of Mauritius
since 1988 and partly subsidized for the second public university, the
University of Technology, Mauritius.
•Education is compulsory for all up to the age of 16 as from January
2005 so that basic education covers 11 years of education.
•A high enrolment rate at pre-primary level, nearing 94% in 2010
•The Net Enrolment Rate in primary education is 96% (2010) with
98% of female and male pupils respectively reaching Grade 6( the
last year of primary schooling) with 82% of pupils progressing to
secondary schools
•The GTER currently stands at 47%.
Literacy Rate
•From 1990 to 2000, the literacy rate increased from 80.8 to 85.0
percent.
•The illiteracy rate highest among adults aged 55 and over.
•The literacy rate for the age group 15-24 years was 94.5 percent as
measured by the census of 2000.
•The higher literacy rate for females for this age group indicates a
reversal of the situation that previously prevailed.
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Policy Successes: Gender Equality
• No
gender gaps or disparities in enrolment at preprimary, primary, secondary and post secondary levels.
• The ratio of girls to boys in primary school is very
high-- at around 97%--while at the secondary and
tertiary levels, girls dominate with a ratio of over
100%.
•Boys and girls are offered the same curriculum in co-educational
settings at primary and in a mix of co-ed and
single-sex schools at secondary level
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Key Policy Challenge: Ensuring successful completion of
schooling
• The yearly drop-out rate at primary level is around
0.5 %.
• At the secondary level every year, about 1.5 %
students leave the system before reaching the fourth
year of secondary schooling.
• In addition, about 9 %, students enrolled in the prevocational stream (which caters for the double failures
at the CPE) do not complete the third year of prevocational education.
• These children enter adolescence ill-prepared for
work, further schooling and the practicalities of coping
with life.
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Key Policy Challenge : Ensuring successful completion of
schooling
• The real issue is to ensure that all children successfully complete
secondary education.
• Currently, around 35% of children fail to obtain the CPE. Of these about 20
% repeat the CPE and those having failed CPE twice or who have reached the
age of 13 are enrolled in the three-year prevocational stream.
• A cohort analysis reveals that, out of 100 children entering Grade I, only 27
complete the last grade at upper secondary.
• Thus the challenge today remains the successful completion of primary
and secondary education by all as it is upper secondary education that
serves as the foundation for advanced learning and training opportunities,
as well as preparation for direct entry into the labor market.
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Key Policy Challenge :
Inclusive Education
Addressing the different needs of children
• Special Education Needs (SEN Strategy – 2006)
• Strategies for those with Learning difficulties (Continuous
Assessment and Remediation)
•Children coming from disadvantaged backgrounds (ZEP
Strategy)
•Learners Unsuccessful at the end of primary (Prevocational
Strategy)
•Needy Students (HRKAD Fund, exam subsidies, free
textbooks)
•Gifted and talented
Inclusion of Children with severe impairments
Strategy
•An appropriate regulatory framework
for adapted and quality education services for the different types of
disabilities of children aged between 3+ and 20 years.
• Appropriate quality assurance framework
to harmonize the level of educational services dispensed by the different
stakeholders
•An appropriate curriculum along with an adapted pedagogy
•Capacity building programs for trainers and teaching personnel
•Decentralized service
•Partnership with Private Providers/ NGOs
Key Policies to accelerate Achievement
• Consolidate the welfare state
• Focus on sustainability: ‘Maurice Ile Durable’
Concept
• Promotion of research in Tertiary Education
Institutions
• Reinforce Private Public Partnership ( Corporate
Social Responsibility)
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Corporate Social Responsibility
•Utilisation of CSR being reviewed.
•Use 50% of the CSR resources to focus on three
National Programmes.
• Social Housing;
• Welfare of Children from Vulnerable Groups;
• Eradication of Absolute Poverty.
•An estimated Rs 5 billion is expected to be mobilised
from CSR over the next ten years to support these
programmes. (Budget Speech 2010)
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Emerging Challenges
Overarching objective:
Transform Mauritius into a Knowledge Economy
1: Consolidating a culture of Lifelong Learning and Tertiary Education
• Shift from high social demand for basic education to a craving for higher education (one
graduate per family)
Improving access to Tertiary Education necessitates ensuring
•Alleviation of the secondary education bottleneck through diversity in
admission criteria
•Financial Sustainability of Tertiary Education
•Expanding Space and Infrastructure provision
•Encouraging private sector investment in TE
•Quality Assurance of Private Sector
•Quality Assurance of Distance Education programmes
•Developing a culture of Lifelong Learning and Tertiary Education
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Emerging Challenges
2.
Addressing the Skills gap:
Eliminating Mismatch between Supply and
Demand of skills
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Desired
Present
Professional
Highly-Skilled &
Multiskilled
Skilled
Semi-skilled
Unskilled
Measures taken
Various measures have been initiated by different authorities
to bridge the gap of skills supply and skills requirements
• Placement for Training Program, Mix of Work and Training with credits
allocated for each Student Work Experience Program (SWEP),
•Setting up of Faculty Industry Advisory committees for mounting of
Programs
• Circular Migration,
• Espace des métiers,
• Life Skills Program,
• Special Entrepreneurship Programme,
• Special Program for Unemployed Women (SPUW), and
• Training and re-skilling under the Eradication of Absolute Poverty
programme
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Sustaining the International Support System
Paying the Price for Success: Policy intervention
To ensure the country’s survival in a highly competitive,
open and globalised economy,
an economic reform program structured around four main
pillars embarked upon ( since 2005)
(i) fiscal consolidation and public sector efficiency;
(ii) improving trade competitiveness;
(iii)improving the investment climate ; and
(iv)democratizing the economy through participation,
social inclusion and sustainability
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Sustaining the International support
system
- Assistance must be aligned with national challenges and ownership.
- Development Partners must adopt a joint programming modality
- Coordinated interventions and aid harmonization following priority areas
identified by the country.
Mauritian Approach:
• Country Partnership Strategy based on the vision of the country developed
jointly with Development Partners
Ministry of Finance and Economic Development
• coordinates all development assistance.
•Selects priority projects critical for the Government program on the basis of
a Business Plan whereby these are matched against fields/ domains where
the Development Partners have a comparative advantage.
Benefit:
Duplication of activities avoided.
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Thank You