(Ecofin Agency) - In Mauritius, 1,869 of the 2,760 learning tablets distributed in lower primary classes in the framework of the government’s project introducing the digital into primary schools, are unsuitable, an audit report reveals. According to the audit, the Mauritius Institute of Education (MIE) did not copy e-books onto the tablets as it was supposed to. Therefore they were useless because there were no pedagogical contents on them.  

This operation cost Rs789.5 million (about $12.3 million) funded by a loan from India and by the 2016-2017 budget.

The audit also reveals that the last phase of a project initiated in 2014 to distribute tablets in secondary schools has not been completed since November 2015 (as it was expected) despite the Rs108.5 million disbursed and Rs21 million paid to the equipment’s manufacturers.

For the audit bureau, all these irregularities show the poor planning of these projects whose benefit for the improvement of the country’s human resource no more needs to be demonstrated.