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Figure 2: The U-Shaped statistical curve of primary school pupils’ performance
(source: Ministry of Education & Human Resources, 2009: pp 28)
The upper rising curve on the right of the curve representing the failure rates
includes the 65% of students in the ZEP schools who each year fail their examinations.
Clearly, the academic performance in the ZEP schools remains a major concern and
the root cause of failure of pupils still remains elusive to governmental efforts.
The solution to this problem probably lies in addressing the weaknesses of the
ZEP initiative in Mauritius. Though well designed, there may still be staunched
systemic weaknesses which are adamant to fl aw the process fl ow and preventing
the ZEP initiative to keep afl oat.
5.2 Improvement in absenteeism rate of pupils
and parental engagement in schooling
At the start of the project in 2003, the rate of absenteeism in the ZEP schools was as
high as 20%. The situation in those schools was characterised by parent disaffection
in the schooling of their children. 10 years later, school absenteeism has been reduced
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