It is not our intention to disturb Minister of Education Leela Devi Dookhun-Luchoomun’s nap in court. God forbid. However, while she is supporting her leader in court and taking the opportunity to have a little siesta, about 13,000 little angels heading back to school this week still cannot see how their childhood is going to be any better than that of their predecessors. Yet, that is what they have been promised. A childhood where they can play. A school that they feel happy going to. A syllabus that develops their creativity and talents. A programme which can supposedly make of them (don’t ask how) honest, well-informed, able citizens. Hence the nine-year schooling and the end of the Certificate of Primary Education (CPE).

All these slogans sound nice. Very nice. Like every other slogan said and repeated ad nauseam by the Alliance Lepep for the last few months. And like every other slogan, it has remained just that – a slogan. The pupils who headed to school this week will be the last to take the CPE exam. But next year’s intake will not in reality be spared the CPE trauma. The fact that their certificates will have a different name – the Primary School Achievement Certificate – will not put an end to the practice of making young children study so hard that they have no time for play. To get the “new” certificate, the new generation of kids will have to compete very hard as their grades will decide the school in their region that they will be admitted to. If this sounds familiar, it’s because it is: the rat race at the age of 11 is still on.

As we speak, there is nothing which hints at a meaningful change in the education system, despite the hype created around it by some well-meaning journalists. The few good intentions mentioned here and there do not constitute a meaningful change to our archaic system.

The CPE itself is not a monster exam if it is not used the way it is used today: to brand our children for life. Similarly, the nine-year schooling by itself is no magic formula if it is not accompanied by an overhaul of the system, particularly the selection process. That overhaul has not happened and there is no indication that it will.

Worse, at the age of 14, kids will enter a second race for yet another round of exams that together with school-based assessment will land them a National Certificate of Education. The certificate will decide which of our kids will have the privilege of accessing the most prestigious option, the “Centres of Excellence” as the academies will be known as, and which ones will have to remain in low-status schools or go down the vocational route.

Any change in education in Mauritius is bound to go against some well-established archaic lobbies. It is the courage to stand up to those lobbies which will result in a more egalitarian, inclusive system which will help those at the bottom of the academic scale to have an education while allowing those who are bright to shine brighter. We are nowhere near that. For as long as our children have to fight for a place in an institution to get an education which is their right by law, we will not achieve our aim of educating our nation. The rest is cosmetics.