For a standardized education

Mr. Dieudonné Michel Razafindrandriatsimaniry, the Primary and Secondary Education Minister, has revealed a number of measures which, his agency believes, will improve the 2002-2003 school year, and will raise the education quality level.

All primary schools, private or public, will receive adequate teaching supplies, and equipment.
Malagasy textbooks for school children and for school teachers are already available, and the agency has started to distribute them, free of charge, to the primary schools.
French, and Arithmetic textbooks for students, and teachers will be available next December.

For secondary schools, a basic library will also be made available at each institution.
Teachers will receive the necessary textbooks.
Given their limited number, only public and private school tenth graders, will receive Mathematics textbooks free of charge.
In the same vein, training seminars will be available to the school teachers.
School inspections will be administered systematically.
The means to achieve this end, i.e. all-terrain vehicles, motorcycles, and outboard boats, are already available.

On another front, school establishments will, from now on, meet educational standards which are designed to optimize public service.
The medium-term objective in primary schools is to have a teacher in every classroom, but meanwhile, a minimum will be met, starting with the beginning of this school year.
Instead of one teacher for both primary school phases, (which is customary in remote areas), there must be two teachers.
One teacher will be in charge of the first phase (first to fourth grade), while another teacher will handle the second phase (fifth to seventh grade).

At the General Education Colleges (GEC), class sizes will be limited to 50 students.
As for the teachers, there will be no less than six, three of which will teach literary curriculum, and two will cover scientific disciplines.
The weekly school load will be twenty hours.
Administrative personnel will include a principal, a general home room overseer, a librarian, and an accountant.

Secondary school principals will have at least nine professors (five to cover literary disciplines, three to handle scientific curriculum, as well as one physical education teacher.
The weekly load is the same as in GEC’s.

Mr. Razafindrandriatsimaniry indicated that this standardization is a must if we are to achieve better school results.

Translated by J. F. Razanamiadana