LALIT's Proposals for Education Gain Interest
24.03.2006
After Lalit's proposals on education were published in the national press and after 1,000 copies were posted to individuals and organizations with a special interest in education, support for and interest in them has surprised Lalit leaders. The proposals (see news archive by clicking on NEWS on home page) were developed during two Lalit Education Commission meetings as a new way to oppose the totally erroneous Government education plan already now being implemented. However, the proposals were based on the tried and tested ideas that were developed in Lalit's Education Commission towards the end of 1983, and consistently discussed since then in the country. It is this long history of the proposals that has presumably produced this apparently "sudden" support and interest. History, as we know, moves in combined and unequal ways.
The Bishop, Maurice Piat, invited Lalit to a meeting to discuss the proposals with him and with Father St. Pern who is in charge of the Church's education committee the Bureau de l'Education Catholique. The meeting was held yesterday (see communique in Kreol). The ex-President of the Republic, Mr. Cassam Uteem, has written a card to Lalit expressing his approval, and desire to be "associated" with many of the Lalit proposals. People from the "inside" of both the MMM and Labour party apparatuses have announced to Lalit their agreement with the proposals. In Labour the idea of quotas for the University scholarships by school has already been the subject of discussion, Lalit members were informed. Pedagogues from the MIE have written notes to Lalit to express their interest. Mr. S. Tengur, one of the Government Plan's biggest supporters, has in person expressed his admiration for Lalit's proposals.
This means that even though the Government is going ahead like a bull at a gate with the Gokhool Plan that divides children hermetically into the "elite", the "academic" and the Pre-vocational, nevertheless there is massive opposition. The opposition will be finding common ground from which to oppose the Plan. Until Lalit's proposals, there was always the danger, which still exists, that the opposition sought common ground of a communalist nature. This is particularly a threat when the Government, lacking rational argument, pumps up communalist support for the undefendable "Reform". And, of course, on both sides of the communal divide, there are arsonists. They lie in wait for the moment when they can light either one of the two fuses that were put in place by the MSM-MMM communal "barter" (over 50% reserved places in exchange for counting Oriental languages in examinations) and that still lie dangling.
All this makes it important that everyone interested in progress on this issue study the Lalit proposal, and campaign on it on all fronts. Contact us if you want to give a hand, organize a small meeting, or discuss the issue.
