EDUCATION AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN POST-INDEPENDENT MAURITIUS IN AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE - 1968-1982 Thesis Presented by: S. JUGGERNAUTH, B.A.(Hons.) English, (C.N.A.A.); Diploma in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (University of London Institute of Education); Diploma in Education (University of London Institute of Education). Master of Arts in Sociology of Education (University of London Institute of Education); For the Course of: Ph.D in Sociology of Education, At: The University of London Institute of Education, For: The Academic Year, 1984-1985. To the loving memory of the living: My beloved wife, Fifi; and my loving son, Kamal. In the living memory of loved ones: My late Parents, my two elder Brothers, and a dear Sister. "The materialist doctrine that men are products of circumstances and upbringing, and that, therefore, changed men are products of other circumstances and changed upbringing, forgets that it is men that change circumstances and the educator himself needs educating." Karl Marx: "Theses on Feuerbach: III", in Karl Marx and Frederick Engles: Selected Works, London: Lawrence & Wishart, (1968 (1888): 28). 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project would not have taken its present form without the close su- pervision and expert guidance of my personal tutor, Dr. Charles Posner who encouraged me to make explicit what was already implicit in my research. To Professor Basil Bernstein of the Sociology of Education Department I am grateful for reading and commenting upon a first draft of this study. To John Hays of the Sociology of Education Department, I am thankful for lending a patient ear to my research problems during the absence of my perso- nal tutor. To Dr. T.N. Davies, formerly Dean of Professional Studies, I am sincerely obliged for sparing me considerable amount of his invaluable time in order to discuss the educational problems facing Mauritius; and also for providing me with official educational reports on Mauritius. Finally, I am most thankful to the Chief Librarian and Staffs of the fol- lowing Libraries for helping me to trace materials related to Mauritius:- To the University of London Institute of Education Library; To the University of London Senate House Library; To the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies; To the University of London Institute of Commonwealth Studies; To the Official Publication Library of the British Museum; To the Public Record Office; To the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Library; ii To the Royal Commonwealth Society Library; And to the Institute of Overseas Development Studies. As a self-supporting student in London, I have come to rely increasingly on the hospitality, financial and moral support of a handful of sincere friends and close relatives; and now, time has come to express my gratitude to them:- In London I am thankful to Mr. & Mrs. Kresh Granthrai of 38, Laitwood Road, Balham, for financial help, moral support and various typing facilities. I am grateful to my brotherly-cousin, Mr. N. Juggernauth & family of 55, Woodlands Road, Ilford, for constant encouragement and moral support during my long educational career. To Dr. A.R. Mannick of Hammersmith, I am obliged for sending me post- haste a copy of his, "Mauritius: A Strategy for Survival". Finally, I am heavily bounded to my wife, Fifi - alias Brinda, without whose financial and moral support, her patience, perseverence and constant en- couragement this study would not have been possible; and to my son, Kamal, I will be sincerely grateful for providing me with a break, now and then, with all his fun and tantrums. In Bristol To my brothers-in-law, the Takooree families - Jagdish, Suresh, and Anand, of Upper Eastville, Bristol 5, I will be for ever indebted for financial help, constant moral support and for looking after my wife, my child and myself in sickness and in health. iii In Paris To A. Rumajogee, fellow Primary School Colleague, now student in Paris, I am sincerely grateful for a guided tour of the Unesco Library in Paris during my stay there; and also for sending me important documents regarding this study; I have also to extend my thanks to the Pillemont family of Rue de Perchamps, Paris 16ieme, and to the Bhunjun family of 110, Rue de St.Leu, Villetaneuse for their entertaining hospitality during my frequent visits to Paris. In Mauritius I have had tremendous help, a lot of encouragement and moral support from my elder brother and a clique of close friends - all belonging to the Primary School teaching community, with the exception of a few. To Mr. Sardhanand Ramphul, Senior Teacher, of L'escalier, I am indebted for financial help. To my brotherly friend, Mr. Leckraj Imrith of Eau-Coulee, I am grateful for various educational reports, a copy of Mr. Ramdoyal's book, "The Develop- ment of Education in Mauritius" and for having Kept me posted with the most recent news from Mauritius during the past ten years of my educational career. To Mr. & Mrs. B. Sadaful of 6D, Henri Koenig Street, Curepipe, I am most grateful for various educational reports and countless letters of encouragement. To Mr. R.D. Ramdoyal, I am most obliged for posting me a copy of Mrs. D. Prithipaul's book, "A Comparative Analysis of French and British Colonial Poli- cies of Education in Mauritius (1735-1889)". I have to add a special word of thanks to all my Primary School Colleagues with whom I had the privilege to work at L'escalier Government School in 1970 iv under the Headship of Mr. Senbque; that was the time when I started taking a keen interest in the educational problems of Mauritius and my 'close' friends - Dewoo, Arthe, Imrith, Ramjeet, Gopal, Gobin,,Rambarath and:P.Saumtally— provided ,a lively forum. While writing this project, I have constantly born in mind all those friends who joined the Teachers' Training College in 1968, and all those who actively participated in the events of 1969. I am further grateful to a group of old and tried friends for their en- couragement and support: D. Woocheet; D.K. Gopee; G. Pergaush; I. Leelah; Pravin Aubeeluck; Brother Anthony; Karmachand Sajeeban and Bye Ragoo. To my mother-in-law, I will be forever indebted for looking after my son for a whole year, thereby providing me with invaluable time to devote to this project. And finally, last to mention, but not least in esteem, I am sincerely thankful to my elder brother, Mr. B. Juggernauth, his family and my nephews for their letters of encouragement and moral support. V ABSTRACT I will argue that education and development in post-independent Mau- ritius should be discussed in its proper historical context: the transfor- mation of the international system in the post-war era. The major change was the rise of the U.S.A. as the dominant power in the international system; and it is under the aegis of various American institutions, most particularly the U.N.O, that the concept of education, implying formal education, and the concept of development, implying economic growth in the mode of the Western industrialised countries, were brought together. I will suggest that Susanne Bodenheimer's model of 'Dependency and Impe- rialism' offers a new theoretical framework to better understand national- international dynamics. From a Marxist-Leninist perspective she argues that the rich industrialised countries of the West, through various infrastructures of dependency, indirectly underdevelop the Third-World countries and that this process has been uneven for some Third-World countries do have a depen- dent developed sector which acts as a 'bridgehead' between the centre and the periphery and which also gives rise to various clientele classes who have a vested interest in keeping the international system intact. She considers 'monopoly capital' as a further stage of capitalist development leading to the rise of multinationals and the internationalization of capital. She identi- fies a multiplicity of causes for the indirect under development of the Third World countries. She points out that the development of capitalism should be studied not only at its point of impact, but also at its point of origin. She finally observes that 'dependency' and 'imperialism' are the two sides of the same process: the former is the view from below, and the latter is the view from above. I will argue that Mauritius is a 'fragmented' social formation which, throughout its history, has given rise to what I have called a seotOmlly fragmented system of educational institutions and practices which have been largely determined by forces - religious, cultural, political and economic - vi external to the Mauritian social structure. This sectorally fragmented system of education has emerged as the educational system became increasingly the site of conflict between different social groups, dominated by the French national bourgeoisie. Since the nineteenth century, the dominant educational culture transmitted by the sectorally fragmented educational system has been that of the dominant class of the British metropolis-an educational culture which gives access to various kinds of employment in the Civil Service, which bestows prestige and status on its possessor and which is the main channel of social mobility. The sectorally fragmented educational system is perpetuated through a huge network of institutions, agencies and agents and that it has no systemic links with the mode of production in the country since its main aim has been to socialize the Mauritian child into an 'expressive' order rather than in an 'instrumental' one; that is education and production has been strongly insulated from each other. I have argued that there is a close link between the educational culture, in its commodified form, and the rise of the power elite which would, even- tually, adopt a 'clientele' role in post-independent Mauritius.