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A plea for justice and fairness for Asian language teachers

Asian language teachers in schools continue to find themselves in a depressingly unjust situation in that they cannot look forward to opportunities of promotion in their entire careers – from their appointment in early youth to their retirement in old age. Though this matter has been raised a number of times in the press and elsewhere no solution has up to now been found to this flagrant built-in injustice.

It should be pointed out that all General Purpose (GP) teachers are assured of benefiting from promotion to the Deputy Head Master (DHM) grade but this is not the case for Asian language teachers. In this connection it is worth mentioning that GP teachers have not only benefited from promotion to the DHM grade automatically but during the last six or seven years they have also been promoted to the Headmaster grade in accordance with the principles of seniority. Thus they have benefited from a minimum of two promotions whereas in our case it is practically nil.

The principle of discrimination against Asian language (AL) teachers is too flagrant particularly at a time when there is so much talk about equal treatment and equality of opportunity. To clarify the point further, it must be mentioned that while several GP teachers who joined the Teachers’ Training College in 1978 and who are younger than their AL counterparts, have been promoted to the DHM grade , their AL counterparts who joined the same college five years or so earlier continue to occupy the same post and among them many, having attained the age of retirement, are no longer in service.

Hindi teachers have recently been shocked after taking cognizance of the fact that one union is attributing the problem of promotion of AL teachers to the number of assistant supervisors and headmasters on the primary establishment. It is common knowledge that nomination to the grade of DHMs is not necessarily related to the number of Assistant supervisors or headmasters. There is a good number of DHMs who retire without being promoted to the HM grade and government must consequently fill the vacancies which arise in this grade.

The most important issue for us is the injustice to which AL teachers are being subjected to particularly when we compare the figure for GP to that of AL teachers. In fact, in the budget estimates mention is made of 2584 GP teachers and 1433 AL teachers. However, there are only 180 posts of DHMs for AL teachers as against 814 posts for the same grade for GP teachers. This matter is too serious and a responsible union ought to take up this matter with government by calling upon it to remedy the situation not necessarily by increasing the number to 500 but at least by making a plea to the effect that no AL teachers reaches retirement age without being promoted to the DHM grade.

Asian language Teachers

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Le chat se taille la part du lion

 

Après les tractations d’alliance à gauche et à droite, après avoir tenu le pays en haleine, pour ne pas dire en otage, Ramgoolam a finalement décidé de se jeter dans l’arène, non sans avoir pris les précautions de se servir des boucliers (ou béquilles).

Toutefois il a pris bien soin de se tailler la part du lion (même s’il est un chat) pour être sûr d’éviter les coups de Jarnac de ses alliés de qui il se méfie toujours. Au lieu de prendre soin de ses ennemis, le voilà qui laisse cette tâche aux autres alors que lui s’occupe de ses “amis”. En gardant 40 tickets et n’en donnant que 20 à ses alliés, il démontre comment cette méfiance se traduit dans la réalité. Donc aucune chance pour le MSM et le PMSD de s’allier et aucune chance d’un coup d’Etat au sein du palais en cas de 60-0. C’est triste pour ces deux formations combinées de n’obtenir que 20 tickets (alors que le MMM en avait obtenu 25), mais en réalité elles n’ont pas le choix, sinon c’est le chemin de « karo kan ».

Le MSM, qui ne représente que 4% des électeurs, doit se réjouir d’avoir été appelé à épauler Navin. La rumeur circulait que le MSM accepterait même 5 tickets. Quant au PMSD, qui d’après tous les sondages, ne représente que 1-2% de l’électorat, XLD a dû se frotter les mains pour avoir bien négocié et obtenu 8 tickets, bien plus que le PMSD ne vaut en réalité.

Si l’alliance PTr-MSM-PMSD est déjà scellée, la deuxième partie de la comédie est encore plus belle: la répartition des tickets. Le renard tourné en chat, ou inversement, fort de la bêtise du MMM avec le MSM en 2005, fera en sorte de positionner ses soldats dans une rangée bien protégée et exposer ses alliés à une position où ils recevront la première salve de fusillade et donc tomberont les premiers. Dans ce contexte, Navin conservera les circonscriptions sûres de la campagne en laissant le MSM et PMSD se mesurer au MMM dans les villes. En cas où ses alliés remportent la victoire, il les récompensera mais en cas de défaite, il sera toujours Roi ou Prince en conservant la majorité, et au pire va contracter une alliance avec son ennemi pour rester sur le trône. Voila donc le schéma de l’alliance Bleu-Blanc-Rouge: pile je gagne, face tu perds.

 

George de Lamare-Lamvohee
Agence Freedom Australia

http://www.agencefreedom.com

http://lecourriercreole.com.au

 

* * *

Request to the Mayor of Vacoas-Phoenix

 

Following the construction of the bridge at Tranquille Street, we, prospective users of the bridge and inhabitants of the region, would like to point out the following safety measures that the Municipality should seriously take into account:

(1) Since Tranquille Street is a very narrow residential road, where two vehicles cross each other with much difficulty (big lorries and buses do not use this road!) and since the bridge would be mainly used by old-aged people as a short-cut to the Shivala, it would be highly appreciated if the bridge could be made « pedestrian-only » for safety reasons.

(2) There is one pre-primary school along this narrow road and it is feared that taxis and ‘taxi-marrons’ serving the region of Cite La Caverne would be using the bridge as a short-cut, hence posing a security threat to young children.

(3) There is also the apprehension that taxis and passenger-vans might queue up at the beginning of the road near the traffic-lights, thus causing major traffic jams, inconvenience and danger, both to the main road users (going towards Q-Bornes, Visitation Primary School and Saddul College and towards Vacoas, La Marie) as well as to residents of Tranquille Ave.

(4) If however the Municipality (despite the above problems) decides not to make the bridge « pedestrian-only », then a sincere request is here made to the Mayor for making the bridge open to only one-way traffic.

To conclude, we firmly believe that for the safety of one and all (especially young pre-primary children and old-aged people going to the Shivala), there is a need to either make the bridge “pedestrian-only” or “one-way” only, with speed breakers near the pre-primary school and near the Tabagie ‘Alpha’ – junction.

 

Inhabitants of Vacoas-Phoenix

 

* * *

Bienvenue au MSM

 

Le Groupe de Surveillance contre le Génocide linguistique et culturel de Brindaban accueille avec un grand soulagement et une grande satisfaction la nouvelle de la coalition Bleu-Blanc-Rouge tombée cette semaine.

Nous avons vécu les dernières semaines dans une grande angoisse causée par les nouvelles propagées par la grande presse d’une possible alliance PTr-MMM. Pour nous, le MMM c’est le parti de la méchanceté. C’est eux qui, depuis 1982 et même d’avant, ont tout fait pour détruire notre langue maternelle qu’est le Bhojpuri. Leur but certain et clair maintenant est de détruire aussi la langue française en imposant leur grafilarmoni sur nos enfants en bas âge. Un enfant qui a subi un lavage de cerveau par les principes d’écriture du grafilarmoni ne pourra absorber les principes de l’orthographe du français qu’avec un effort hors du commun, dont les enfants dits faibles ne sont pas capables. Il n’est pas certain que ceux qui ont des difficultés avec le français auront plus de chances avec le “Kreol”. Avec les principes du MMM notre système d’éducation ne produirait majoritairement que des illettrés.

Nous pensons qu’avec l’arrivée du MSM dans la coalition gouvernante, les chances de survie de nos langues ancestrales aussi bien que coloniales, entre autres du français seront améliorées de beaucoup. Bienvenue à Monsieur Pravind Jugnauth.

 

Paramanund Soobarah 

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