The results for the Certificate of Primary Education (CPE) came out on Monday and it was the whole country that breathed a sigh of relief. This is it. We are finally done with the CPE, or at least with the name for the moment. For the select few who got into elite schools, now is the time for celebration. For the rest, now is the time to turn into Goldilocks.

A Goldilocks planet, named after the popular children’s character, is a planet that falls within a star’s habitable zone. For the Earth, which is also a Goldilocks planet, its star is the sun. For the common man, his star is going to be whoever helps him get his child into the best school possible. Anyone in Mauritius will tell you that if you want to get something done – mainly when the different branches of government are involved – you have to colour outside the lines. That is not something that we should ever acknowledge or accept but it would be stupid to dismiss the reality on the ground.

At face value, there is nothing wrong with wanting what is best for one’s child. There is also no point in explaining again and again how elitism has left thousands of children behind. However, the waltz of parents trying to figure something out for their child following their CPE results, having to call in favours, begging and pleading is outrageous.

The belief is that if you get your child into a slightly better school, (s)he will have a better chance at succeeding in life. How about the thousands of pupils that don’t manage to get into that slightly better school? What do we tell them? We cannot tell them that the education system has failed them because it fails everyone. We cannot tell them that mommy and daddy don’t know the right people even though many parents would heartbreakingly admit that this is the truth. With an education budget of Rs16.1 billion and a system where school is free, surely no parent should ever have to feel that way.

We have to wonder how it is possible that the only way of making this system work for everyone is to venture outside of it. We are aware that our current decision-makers suffer from cognitive dissonance but, in this particular instance, our broken education system has been an evil that has stood the test of time. Just as we do every five years with our political class, we are terrified of change.

Don’t be fooled by the Primary School Achievement Certificate (PSAC) and the Nine-Year Schooling (NYS). These changes will in no way affect the parallel system that we have to go through to get things done. We are Goldilocks planet. Without a star to shed some light on us, we ineluctably fade into oblivion.

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