Hyleen Mariaye, who teaches at the Mauritius Institute of Education, thinks that it is dangerous for democracy if the citizens cannot think beyond the instrumental level or examine the ethical implications of decisions or do not have the moral resilience to act in accordance with what can be considered as fair and just or, even more sadly, if they cannot make caring choices.

Can you make a critical review of the relationship between education and ethics?

I would not refer to this connection in terms of a “relationship”. Rather, I think ethics and education are but two sides of the same coin. Education, by definition, implies developing a certain degree of ethical knowledge and sensitivity so that any person can think and act in an autonomous manner. Although the public discourse on education embraces this view, educational practices today are mostly geared towards exclusively training students to demonstrate a set of skills and competencies which are measurable and useful for examination purposes.

It is dangerous for democracy if the citizens of a country cannot think beyond the instrumental level or examine the ethical implications of decisions or do not have the moral resilience to act in accordance with what can be considered as fair and just or, even more sadly, if they cannot make caring choices.

Most educational practices in Mauritius which attend to this ethical dimension tend to consider it from either an exclusively religious or from a socio-emotional perspective. It is urgent that we move to a more holistic understanding of ethical education which seeks to develop the skills of analysis, of logical and critical thinking, tempered with a sense of shared responsibility and accountability to each other. I think the curriculum offers ample leeway for schools and teachers to engage fully in this dimension of education without sacrificing the intellectual rigour expected of subject teaching. Indeed, for me, ethical education has to be catered for as part of any subject teaching instance.

It is therefore urgent to think of ways in which this integration can be effected and to act accordingly…

In our context…absolutely! We are living in an age that makes more ethical demands on us. We have become increasingly interdependent and each of the decisions we make, sometimes almost unconsciously, affect many people. As consumers, we choose to buy from big corporates or from struggling farmers and entrepreneurs. We could indeed decide to pay a little more, consume less and support those who really need it. 

Education looks beyond developing awareness of issues. It is about learning to uncover the values which underpin each of our actions and learning to build in people the moral courage to defend their decisions. 

In a world where capitalist interests would rather have us follow trends, we need people who can ask the disruptive questions regarding how decisions about who has power and access to resources are taken.

“The frustration of having a degree and not finding a job has led to what I believe is quite a potentially explosive social situation…”

It is a fact that the status of the teacher is no longer what it used to be. There seems to have been some sort of regression. What explains this situation, according to you?

They are many accountable factors. Some are linked to how the profession is developing because of economic factors and others relate indirectly to the emergence of a so-called rival: technology. The status of any profession depends on the specific expertise needed to practice it. The more specific the expertise needed, the more highly it is regarded.

Although the policy is to professionalise fully the teaching profession, the recruitment of teachers without any professional qualification is a persistent practice which harms the status of the profession because it signals that no specific teaching skills are needed to become a teacher.

Additionally, the nature of the adult-child relationship has changed in terms of the power balance and this affects the teacher-student relationship, eroding teachers’ authority and, by ricochet, their status. Teachers also have to compete with the vast knowledge sources which are available online. The teacher is no longer the sole repository of knowledge. Sadly, some parents and students think access to information suffices and discount the value of learning how to discriminate, use and evaluate information, which are precisely skills that schools can develop.

How do public universities differ from private ones in terms of the purposes they serve?

Despite the fact that the contexts and parameters within which they operate are different, I think that neither can be exonerated from their mission to contribute to the development of knowledge at the service of the society. Public universities have been founded in post-independent Mauritius, as in many African countries, specifically for nation-building. The scarce resources were channelled to research and manpower development in critical economic sectors. Universities were sheltered from financial worries because of their higher mission. But over time, the logic of the market caught up with higher education and governments can no longer shoulder alone the immense task of providing adequate opportunities in the face of increasing demand. So private universities share this mission of expanding access but, of course, provision of the service must be financially viable for them too. So they cater for those who can pay higher fees. The question is really in terms of how the priorities are set. I used to think public universities have the luxury of putting quality first, but the current economic stringency may very well force them to comply primarily with the logic of numbers and figures, just as the private universities. But at what cost? I dare not think! I also used to think private universities were all about making profits, but I now realise that they may well have access to resources which allow them to be more quality-oriented. I think we must move past the clichés and examine the opportunities for each to grow, perhaps through mutually benefiting partnerships. The crux of the matter would consist in setting national standards for quality in higher education for all institutions of higher learning and to, thereby, establish a level playing field.

Does it suffice to simply increase the number of graduates in a country, as per the “one graduate per family” slogan?

The danger in focusing on the numbers is the narrowness of perspectives that this invites. Whilst it is important to have quantitative targets to allow the monitoring of our own progress as a nation, we must nonetheless be guarded against using them exclusively as a measure of success. What supplementary indicators of quality are we using to consider graduate capacities? Are our graduates able to compete with Singaporeans and Australians in terms of knowledge, skills and work ethics? As a democracy, we must indisputably provide access, but we also have to ensure that we do not breed false hopes if employment opportunities, whether locally or abroad, will not be available to the graduates either because their degrees do not match the expectations of the market or are not recognized internationally. The frustration of having a degree and not finding a job after three years or of ending up as a permanent supply teacher has led to what I believe is quite a potentially explosive social situation because of the economic distress that this situation has engendered. If we want to have a nation of entrepreneurs, let’s start to think about the kind of postsecondary education that the country might need.

A very important official of the education sector has recently declared that the essence of the reform to be undertaken is to ensure that as many children as possible are happy about going to school (“l’express”, Sunday 17th January 2016). Your views...

Many are already happy to go to school but not necessarily for the reasons for which we want them to be happy. This is the trickiest part of education in fact. Teachers face many recalcitrant learners who need to be convinced that learning is both worthwhile and enjoyable. Perhaps I could also add that teachers need to be happy as well!