¦ Mr Barnes, you have spent about 5 years now immersed in education in this countrywhat are your impressions of the local educational situation?

In essence I like it because the Mauritian Government is making every effort to educate all of its children but is also taking into account differentiation for those who are more academic.

¦ You mean those who go to the “star schools”?

Yes, I am impressed by the academic hot houses that have been created and are now traditional ‘must haves’ such as Queen Elizabeth College, College du St Esprit, the Royal Colleges etc. but the mainstream State Schools, whilst these are for everyone, seem to lack the true definition of educating with dedication and genuine care. Also, I am distressed by the lip service paid to holistic education, educating the whole child for a global society.

¦ And is educating the “whole individual” done in private schools, for example?

In fact, I am not particularly impressed with what are called in general “private schools”.

I do not, as I have experienced in most other countries, see them as necessarily better or more dedicated to delivering a better education than the state schools.

¦ Are you actually saying that private education is no better than the public sort?

Yes, exactly.

¦ If it is not perceptibly better, how does it survive then?

That is a question I might ask. I mean because certainly in most countries in the world, if you’re paying for something, you’re going to get a better response than if you’re getting something that is part of the state’s “hand out”.

The government is putting more into the state sector than the stakeholders who control the private sector are putting into theirs. The private sector does not have the means that the government has at its disposal. You know we operate under the PSSA but to be frank with you, everything is very vague.

¦ So how do private schools survive?

Well, in some cases, there is a church organization behind the school. And they have probably got a group of people with a certain philosophy that take them forward but I don’t think that these organizations are creating the sort of independent schools you and

I would know for instance. In the Western world, and even in Asia, the very best independent schools are hugely financed. They have a strong alumni background.

Some of the great schools in India are financially very secure because the old boys are looking after them.

And in fact, I ran a school such as that in Zimbabwe where the old boys’ factor was massive and without that input, we would not really have been the school that we were.

¦ You mean the alumni were financing the school?

In many respects, yes

¦ And you don’t see that happening here?

I would say it is not happening here.

¦ Why? Could it be because there is no sense of belonging?

Either that or there is a sense of belonging but it does not translate into huge financial interest. But my limited knowledge after five years is that there is a lot of pride in belonging to the great schools like the Royal Colleges, St Esprit and Queen Elizabeth but whether they are putting anything back into them, I would say “no”. Whereas the alumni in the U.K or Africa are still putting back into the schools.

¦ But is school only about financial input?

Sadly yes. What comes with financial input is the option to choose a much more highly qualified and experienced staff. And of course, to build the facilities that attract people you want children to have something more than just a classroom based education. My concern about the schools in Mauritius is that they don’t want to do the work involved in creating a holistic school - one where the extra-curricular is not necessarily more important than the academic side but certainly on a par with it. A school where there are sports, cultural and leisure activities, social parental input, fun days, golf tournaments - anything likely to bring the community together and to make people believe in the community,  to believe in the children and develop their education – will be a successful one. So that’s what worries me.

¦ Are you talking about private AND public schools?

I am. Both. All I see, and this is purely a personal response, is a strong push for academic success, sadly, to the detriment of every other aspect of the child’s development.

¦ But isn’t there the same focus on academic success in the U.K. and the obsession with getting into Oxbridge?

Yes, but those children going to Oxford and Cambridge are probably good debaters, can speak in public, have played good soccer or rugby, or excelled at athletics because when they get to Oxbridge, of course, that is all part of their lives. It’s as if they are sort of feathering their caps. Because Oxbridge will only take children like  that who come from that holistic background.

¦ There is a general belief here that children who go to private schools are more confident – for example, they can debate with more ease… Does this come from the school or from the parental background?

I think it comes from the parents. It is also part of their culture or, if not, then they believe that it’s actually essential because they didn’t have it themselves. In fact, that is what the wider world wants: a social animal rather than the academic sort of achiever.

¦ If you have been in education in this country for a while, you must have heard of a famous affliction called “private tuition”.

Well, I am trying to understand the people of  Mauritus from this point of view. I’ve never taught in an environment where it is so incredibly all-consuming. Elsewhere, it has always been necessary for children who have learning difficulties to be given extra help. When I was a child, mathematics was never my forte (my forte was definitely English, history and things like that) so my father, I remember, did send me to a cram school. But in Mauritius it seems they are cramming almost every one from junior school right through secondary school and so there is no time to make them all-round individuals.

¦ Do children from private schools also take private tuition?

Yes, they do.

¦ Why is that?

Because it’s a disease! And we have no control over it. The extra tuition we give in the school is only for the children who need it. We try and keep within our framework. My wife is a truly excellent mathematics teacher for children for whom maths is not a favourite subject but she will take the children and try to structure their appreciation of the subject. We give them a limited window of opportunity.

We will not say “Mrs. Barnes, teach this child for the next five years.” What we will say is “teach him for a term, see how far you can get with him and if it’s not working, come back to me and say what we should do.” But we are hopeful that she will have triggered off something which will help him to understand maths better.

¦ So private tuition is not widespread in Northfields, then, is it?

No, because we are offering a more holistic education.

What we do offer is extra-curricular activities after three o’clock.

¦ Do you run the International Baccalaureate (IB) as Le Bocage does?

I.B. is the flavour of the month in terms of the whole world and it is growing exponentially. It is a great programme which includes the important element of CAS (Creativity, Action and Service). But we are also conscious of its limitations. In a school where children are from a background where they are not all brilliant and this is not going to change, it is sometimes difficult. We tend to take expatriate children and to be honest, we are taking children who can afford to be here - that’s the bottom line.

And we give them the very best possible opportunity to become very good practitioners as far as they can with, in some cases, their limited ability. And IB does not suit all of them because I think it was originally designed for international and bright students, whereas we’ve got the international students but they are not all top academically and so we have tried to balance that very delicate act here at the school.

¦ But for those low achievers, there is the I.B. certificate, isn’t there?

The I.B. certificate does not mean very much. We have done our homework on it and we know, for instance, in Britain, 98 % of British universities would not even look at these certificates.

¦ In Australia they do…

There are some Australian and South African universities that will look at them but again, a limited number. And honestly, some of our students are not up to it. You know when I go to debates, public speaking and spelling contests at Q.E.C. and St Esprit, I watch these extremely intelligent and confident children operating on the stage and I think to myself – those kids have got it because they are also very bright. Many of our kids do not have the same ability.

¦ What do you think it would take to make private sector education here similar to what you have in the U.K?

Well, it’s not going to happen because there is not going to be an organization that is going to come forward and pay that sort of money. In order for this to happen, there has to be a very serious financial input initially. We are talking about tens of millions of rupees to start off the school. For a community to do this, like putting up Northfields, it is an extraordinary thing to happen because the school is a limited company. It has shareholders and the parents buy shares in the company in various categories. It is a huge investment and it is only possible because of the involvement  of the parents.

¦ How much would it cost me to send my child here?

If you are an expatriate, Rs 28,000 a month about half of that if you are local.

¦ Do you think that is a deterrent?

No, I actually don’t. Now that you mention it. I don’t think it is. I think a lot of Mauritians would struggle to find a way if they thought the independent sector was offering something better than the state sector. I would like to believe that. I do think most parents believe that if it’s worth paying for, they will find the money. The fact is that they probably find that what is being offered is no better than what the state is offering.

¦ I think the belief here is that there is not enough competition in the private sector. There is no selection.Is that a justifiable viewpoint?

I think that is justifiable: the system is money-based and everyone is allowed in. Queen Elizabeth, the Royal Colleges and St Esprit are elite schools whether we like it or not. And it’s an elitist system formed within a government system. So, there is a wonderful elitist system being sustained at these schools and I ran one of these schools in Africa, so I would be the first to say that I don’t approve of them because you can get a lot out of them. Where I do worry is that what we created at the end of the day was still not a global citizen.

But I am not being entirely fair, here: when I go to certain competitions, I am electrified by how much these young Mauritians want to express themselves, want to be seen as intelligent, capable people and I love that part. I really enjoy seeing them doing this because they are in state schools and very often maybe they come from quite poor backgrounds and that I love.