Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Creole in our schools ! why ?

A lot has been debated on whether the creole language should be used at school. An author on ledefimedia even wrote an article comparing the differences between creole and bhojpuri. We cannot compare what is not comparable or equal. We are living a new era and what is the trend today is not the same as what was the trend a decade ago. What I want you to understand is that people can express themselves to the fullest only by using the language they were brought up with. Having said that, being proficient in a language understood by only 1.2million living beings is not that much helping whether for a career or for doing business abroad.

The debate
The debate going on is that.. creole should be used a school language. But the thing is that creole is already used at school as a teaching language since decades. So what do they want more ?

They want to make creole a subject at school. This is indeed a very strange idea. Same as the one of changing the rank of villages into cities. If you missed that article. Click here.
Children today do not know how to write creole well. Let alone children, grown ups find it quite complex to write a complete phrase in creole. Of course, the only reference would be the creole dictionary of Dr. Carporan from the University of Mauritius who has compiled a dictionary whereby giving full definitions of creole words, some of which are french words which rewritten in graphilarmoni. 
children at stake

If we did a referendum on a national level, what would come out of it ?
Do you think they would accept this ? to make their children lose their precious learning time to learn a language that holds no value on the world market ? They would prefer to make their children learn Mandarin ( The next rising language and best for commerce in the years to come), Spanish, German or Italian.  

The Figures

95-99% of Mauritians speak creole, yes, that's true. But, is that enough to make our children learn creole as a language at school. The adults and elders of this society, have they learned creole at school ? Are they not capable of talking creole ? Creole is only a language for conversation. Not a language for business or whatsoever. So, why should it be giving that status. Creole should remain what it is. The country became prosperous with a generation learning mainly french and english at school. They were able to concentrate on those languages and most persons know writing a 4th language ( Asian or European). The success of the future generation should not be compromised for the sake of honoring a language which is not one.
children hate school
What about other countries ?
Belgium is today divided between Wallon speakers and french speakers. However, even there where the persons are fighting to divide their country, they do not have a subject called Wallon language in Belgium. So, Who are we to put forward such a nonsense. In France, There are many region specific languages, but none of them are put forward as academic languages.

What is the danger ?
The danger of putting creole language as a school subject here in Mauritius is that many Mauritian students who are already having problems with English and French languages might tend to concentrate less on those International languages. This would be the complete failure of our educational system.
stop the nonsense
My word
The creole language should be taken for what it is. A dialect used by the Mauritian population for conversation purposes solely. The creole language will never become a language for official documents. It should be kept as optional and learned away from school. The children should be made to concentrate on English and French languages at school, such that when they end up a 6-10 years schooling they can at least be able to speak and write fluently English and French. If we were to make a census in our contemporary Mauritian society, We would probably see that a vast majority of those who are well-off or succeeded in their careers are proficient in English and French or either of those languages.

Do you think creole should become a language to be studied at school or not ? comment below please.

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1 comment:

  1. I think that Creole should be learnt at home. Creole as a subject will have a negative impact on other languages taught at school. As English and French are used for official document, I think that one should concentrate more on these subjects rather than Creole.

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