CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 General Introduction
After gaining its independence in 1968, educating its populations became one of the main concerns of the government of Mauritius to face the new challenges. The Education System of the country did not differ from the British System since Mauritius was a former British colony. Today our current Education System can be classified as Pre-primary level, Primary level, Secondary level and Tertiary level and all the levels of the Education System are governed by the Education Act of Mauritius with its various amendments, which was first introduced in 1957. Following the economic prosperity of the ‘60s and ‘70s, there was a high social demand for education. Consequently to sustain the social and economic growth of the country, recommendations for an education system as a result of enquiry and various reports was to be made to be more receptive to the systematically emerging needs of society. After free Primary Education, education became free at the secondary level in 1977 and subsequent to the amendment brought in the Education Act in 2005, education became compulsory till the age of 16. Since then, efforts have been made towards not merely adapting the education
According to Borg (1963, as cited in Cohan, Manion, & Morrison, 2000), the combination of experiences and reasoning can be is viewed as research, leading to the most successful approach to the discovery of truth. In the field of education as said by Mutch (2005, pp. 14), educational research can be defined as a purposeful and systematic enquiry to solve a problem, illuminate a situation or add to our knowledge 'by the discovery of non-trivial facts and insights’ Howard & Sharp (1983, as cited in Bell, 2005, pp. 2) with regard to the improvement of education policy and