154 words

16 days already gone in 2011 and I finally decide to write down my New Year's resolutions! Well, am writing them somewhere else, not here!
However, since one of them is about blogging, I thought I might as well share it to you.
Like many of us, on 1st January we woke up and took the resolution to blog more this year. But we all agree that writing takes time, a lot of time.. so does reading!
So, this year I've decided to write more posts but with less words. It doesn't mean I will be saying less things, but rather communicate things effectively. With thousands of blogs out there people tend to bypass long posts they come across and move to more readable ones - and this is what I do too :)
This year, let us all post more, keep them brief and to the point, and be happy in the blogosphere.

Who wants to learn creole?

We are in the middle of some major torments in our local educational sector. One of the big buzz of the moment is the introduction of  the Mauritian 'Creole' as a subject in our school curriculum. We can hear/read debates almost everyday on our radio stations and newspapers.

The first part of the debate, which finally was not debated as almost everybody agreed on the matter, consisted of the making use of Creole as a medium to teach in schools. Though officially it should not be the case, both primary and secondary teachers have been using creole as a medium to instruct in their classrooms since always. I wonder why the FCM (Federation Creoles Mauriciens) claimed that the introduction of creole could reduce rate of failures.

As a witness of that system I think there's nothing more logical than to teach a learner in his own mother tongue. Mathematics and Science subjects cannot be taught in a languages that a learner hasn't properly grasped we all agree.

"If the Chinese spoke English they would have conquered the world already by now."

But what is totally irrational in my opinion (and of many others too) is having Creole as taught subject in schools.

If someone could be tell me how this is going to benefit someone or the country please don't hesitate! Last week I read from somewhere that Mauritius is the only country where English is losing ground. Needless to stress on the ways English language breaks down economic barriers within countries. If the Chinese spoke English they would have conquered the world already by now.

Lets say we have accepted Creole  in our curriculum. Creole and French being highly linked we will be confused when writing in both languages. This will result in higher failure rates in both subjects. Writing the following sentence in French: "Il faut BWAR beaucoup d'eau" is definitely wrong. But writing in Creole: " Bizin boire de lo" can be wrong too because here the word 'boire' is French-written. Poor student.

Creole being an ever-mutating language, I find it hard to standardize words, grammar an expressions. Different populations from different regions and backgrounds speak differently.

Consider the following essay of this guy from the suburbs: 

"En zourner bord la mer.

Moi ek en de melar decide pou dessan bord la plaz pou kass en yen. Sa zour la soleil p crass difer mover kaliter. Mo pass bazar mo tap en dipain ek so gato pima pou nu manzer la zourner. La boisson mo camouad Zorz pou amener. Dresser partou."

I stop here. FCM please correct this.

If the country needs to move forward we should instead accentuate on other languages which will permit us to communicate more efficiently with foreign countries. It has been brought to my attention that mandarin is gaining popularity in schools. Do you know why? Well learning mandarin will enable us to do business with China and this will prove profitable to the country of course. Learn Hindi, learn Mandarin, learn Italian.

Being a small island in the Indian Ocean, Mauritius's dependency on developed countries is very high and we should double our efforts to commerce with those countries.

Where will Creole lead us? Which job are we gonna get with Creole at A-level? What further studies can we expect after that?
I asked my friends from the Creole community about their views. Well most of them speak French with their children at home. Some send their kids to private English-medium or French schools.

This minority who are fighting an absurd battle in reality haven't even identified at all the root problem.

The first Mauritian Wiki

One year ago Avinash Oojorah and myself worked collaboratively on our Masters thesis. The main aim was to study the behavior of Mauritians on a Wiki platform. We concluded that it was very successful when it came to digital natives compared to the adult crowd. Mauripedia.com in itself was a neatly-designed website where MediaWiki was embedded. In the presentation below you will find an overview of the project together with a few screen dumps of the site and a small wiki tutorial.

mauripedia

View more presentations from Girish Mungra.