I have stopped counting how many times the PM has repeated this along with the increasingly boring accounts of the varying impact that one Andre Masson article had on him. He seems to find it very convenient to use SSR as a catch-all category to obliterate the hard work of others. In this case the implementation of free education by one Kher Jagatsingh.
Hah, you might say. Implementation is nothing, vision is everything. Not really. Did you know that about 90% of organisations were unable to execute their strategies in the 1990s? You can also take a look at Navin's track record. Didn't he say he wanted to make us all millionaires? That was one of his visions. Interesting. Wow. Awesome. But things didn't quite play out according to script: thanks to the bean-counter, he presided over a very brutal creation of inequality in Mauritius. Do I need to expand on his Maurice Ile Durable (MID) project?
Returning to free education, here is SVR's take on what really happened as reported in Le Mauricien of September 13, 1986: ... qu'au moment ou lui meme, feu SSR et aussi sir Kher preparaient le manifeste du Parti Travailliste pour les elections de 1976, Sir Kher etait venu avec l'idee de l'education gratuite.
18 comments:
Il y a beaucoup de demi-vérités dans les discours des politiciens. Etant sans doute trop jeune, je n'étais pas au courant de ces faits. Pourquoi ne pas écrire un article et le faire publier dans la presse ? La population a le droit de savoir.
Richard Le Bon
In the name of the father...putting things into perspective is priceless
Revionism along with 'bat-batter' seems to have indeed become the favourite hobby of some of our politicians. Sounds like a good idea Richard. Thanks.
There are loads of persons who are still nostalique and still think about the fact that they have got independance because of SSR.. but the reality is something else. Uk wanted to get rid of mauritius which was a deficit to its budgets each year, and the closed route to india, since India just had its independence, somewhere even if SSR didnt ask for independence we would still have got it.
As for le fils, he is still hiding in the shadow of his father and making it clear in the mind of those low education persons that they are not voting for him but for his father when they vote his name. That is why is continuing to live on his father's name at 60 yrs old !! .. And i am utterly bored with soo many stuffs on le pere de la nation a toute les sauces.
Bizen changement ! .. how many years will we continue with those persons ?
I am aware that free secondary education was the brainchild of Kher Jagatsing in 1976.
As fate would have it, he was to implement it in 1977, setting up the PSSA for that purpose.
He was also instrumental in the setting up of the MGI. He was working with Uttama Bissoondoyal and Oomashankar Hawoldar to create an institution for the promotion of Indian culture. The name of Mahatma Gandhi was suggested by Uttam.
Surendra Bissoondoyal
Ledikasyon gratis has no personal meaning, neither to Navin Ramgoolam (now or before being born with a golden spoon in his mouth) nor to the bean-counter (now, not before as he was a marsan gatopima)as the latter is taking money from and of the poor (taxpayers' and consumers money) (the have-nots) to hand over to the classe possedante (the haves). It is only a means to their propaganda; does it help them more to recognise the truth about Sir Kher? Navin's "mo papa" catches votes!
Are you affiliated to a political party? Your stances are generally anti labour. (just a note)
I am not sure about that Ashfaq. There were tough constitutional talks in England. Also India got its indenpendence 21 years before Mauritius. So you think the British would have dragged this thing for that long? You have to remember that our country was divided over the question of independence in the 1967 general elections (44% vs. 56). The other thing is that the road to freedom spanned many decades. I agree with you that Navin Ramgoolam should indeed have spared us his endless and boring stories about his father. I don't think SSR would have liked that at all. As a matter of fact, I don't recall SSR ever talking about his father. He was a great leader who was busy solving, with his team, the real and serious problems our country was facing. He didn't have time for crap like Navin.
I agree with yo Kranti. Navin is just interested in staying on as PM. That's it, that's all.
No Bruno, I am not affiliated to any party political party. I am just anti-crap and pro-Mauritius. You may get this feeling because we analyse many national policies and those have obviously been brought forward by the government and in particular by Sithanen. But we have taken swipes at the MMM and the MSM too.
Sanjay, when i was talking about the independence of india, i am also referring to all what happened with the independence of india. After india got it's independence, the british had to go back to united kingdom and leave India and atleast start to take back some of their stuffs back to uk. For that they used the Suez canal and after Egypt seized the Suez canal and then israel seized the canal and finally the 6 days war in 1967, it would have been too difficult for anything to go from united kingdown to india and back which is the "main" asset of britain in Indian Ocean at the time, thus even though india had gained it's independence, britain still had assets there and it took time to repatriate all that, including the personels and also the interests of britain in the sino-indian war "indochine" in 1962. All that coupled with the slowing down economy of the british in the 60's with came to a down peak in 1967. And also since Mauritius is just a pebble compared to india and the assets of the british there, it was obvious that uk would give the independence to Mauritius whatever be results of the referendum in Mauritius. Mauritian opinion didn't count at all, what counted for the british was their economy and their new ideology in 1957 of nationalization. Thus, it had to get rid of stuffs that was sucking it's economy, and Mauritius was sucking down the britain economy each year.
from a Student's point of view. I pay Rs17000+ per year at the university of mauritius. and they say education is gratuit? duh.. just beautiful words.. not the reality.
Sun, in the same vein, you could also include the extension of school hours through chargeable "lecons particulieres"!
Sanjay, granting ledikasyon gratis is laudable, but the world does not stop there.
PK
Ashfaq, how then could a 'pebble' be a thorn in Britain's side?
Couple of more points on free education:
1) Rs 5 billion went to waste according to the last audit report. How much would it take to make University free? We could also come up with a scheme of 'prets et bourses' like in Quebec. Depending on how much our parents make you get more loans or more scholarships.
2) not much was done in the education sector between 1982-1995 (which include the miracle years!). So as a country we defused the demographic bomb and then were unable to build one or two schools every year which would have avoided the appearance of a disease called 'la fiev CPE'.
3) Private Tuition is indeed a problem. But it can be tamed.
You may check this for my thoughts on the education sector http://morisk.blogspot.com/2006/06/no-4-april-2006.html
You should thus understand that when a government faces economic crisis, all small reductions in deficits count.
Which is why even though the government is quite well off in mauritius, giving much to many sectors of the economy, it has stopped to pay half subsidy for SC and HSC exams for half of the population or more and that accounted for only rs40million .. what is rs40million for mauritian economy , when we know the scandal of pepsi sega hungama and other festivities !!
Sithanen has been imagining problems right from the start and was then very happy to celebrate their resolution before imagining a fresh new set. We should not forget the billions of rupees doled out or wasted under the last government either.
Check this http://morisk.blogspot.com/2008/08/no-10-august-2008.html
You can use html tags to make links clickable, for e.g. http://morisk.blogspot.com/2006/06/no-4-april-2006.html ;)
btw did you read my post on kozelidir?
Let me see if this works
http://morisk.blogspot.com/2008/08/no-10-august-2008.html
Yes Bruno. I just went to check it out. Thanx.
Reality check: Those who like congratulating themselves that Dodoland is the best of Africa should take note that the (still aspiring?) Knowledge Hub / Cyber Island is not good enough to make it to the world's top 100...
Free education is not all: quality should to be a priority. But just a look at its (nearly decrepit) physical infrastructure these days will convince you that it's actually not the priority.
We can make it free and of high quality too.
That's the difference between bean-counting and having the right attitude.
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