For an island nation so dependent on the marine environment, the lack of marine
environmental sciences in the current school curriculum represents a major gap
that needs to be addressed. The Ministry of Education and Human Resources plans
to review the curriculum for Standards 1, 2 and 3 in 2006 and 4, 5 and 6 in 2007.
Reef Mauritius has participated in the National Debate on Curriculum Reforms and
aims at participating in the review this coming year, so as to include marine
topics in the primary school curriculum.
The organization has developed a poster on the
Impacts of Human Activities
on the Lagoon and accompanying flash cards, and is currently developing
additional posters and other materials, activities, games and worksheets for
children and teachers. Shoals Rodrigues, an NGO working for the conservation
of the marine environment in Rodrigues has produced a teacher pack -
Discovering
the Ocean World - comprising three booklets, games and other educational
materials with plans to distribute throughout Rodrigues, Mauritius and Seychelles.
This pack was launched during the
Fête de la Mer in November 2005.
The Reef Mauritius materials complement this pack as they put emphasis on the
local context. These materials are designed to complement the existing general
science curriculum rather than to add on an extra subject.
Training on the use of these materials will be provided in collaboration with
the Ministry of Education through the National Council for Curriculum Development
and the Mauritius Institute of Education to 10 schools in the North of the island.
Reef Mauritius aims at providing follow-up to this workshop, through site visits
and field trips.
Field trips are an essential component of this project to complement what has
been learnt in class. The Beach Authority has expressed an interest in providing
the Mauritian SCUBA Diving Association and Reef Mauritius with a building on
the beach at Pereybere that could be used as a platform for sensitization and
fieldtrips for school children. This centre would be an open door to all beach
users who wish to inform themselves about the marine environment, for children
to enroll in swimming lessons. The UNDP GEF/SGP will be supporting this project.
In order to bring the marine environment closer to the children, environment
corners will be developed and provided to 20 schools as part of this project.
