ARTICLE 17- RIGHT TO EDUCATION 1) Every individual shall have the right to education. 2) Every individual may freely, take part in the cultural life of his community. 3) The promotion and protection of morals and traditional values recognized by the community shall be the duty of the State. 223. The right to education is provided for in the Education Act and education is free in Mauritius from pre-primary to tertiary level. In line with internationally accepted best practices, Section 37 of the Education Act provides for education to be mandatory for all children up to age of 16. Section 14 of the Constitution guarantees the right of a religious denomination or any other group to establish schools. Government encourages the use of mother tongues to facilitate teaching and learning. With a view to promoting teaching of the mother tongue, the Kreol Morisien was introduced in Standard I in 2012 as an optional subject. Bhojpuri has also been integrated in the existing Hindi curriculum. Implementation will be pursued incrementally for the teaching of Kreol Morisien across the primary cycle. The Kreol Morisien will ultimately be reckoned as an examinable subject for end of year primary examination on the same lines as other optional languages. 224. Mauritius also caters for learners with special education needs. The Special Education Needs (SEN) sector runs on the fact no learner should be left outside the education system on the basis of his/her disability. The SEN Strategy sets the framework to ensure that children requiring special education needs in Mauritius enjoy access to relevant and high quality education. 225. Given that Mauritius is a multicultural society, much emphasis is placed on the promotion of tolerance and understanding of others during dedicated periods in schools. We have a literacy rate of 98.1% among the 15-24 years. PRE -PRIMARY EDUCATION 226. To ease the financial burden on parents and ensure equitable access to education, Government provides subsidies to private preschools in the form of a per capita (Rs 200 monthly per child). All school going children from low income families are eligible to a monthly cash allowance (Rs 750/-) provided they meet the criterion of 90% school attendance. This allowance is paid to their families. 227. The net enrolment ratio for children aged 3-4yr stood at 91% in 2017, indicating that the majority of children of preschool age have access to pre-primary education. 228. The number of schools providing pre-primary education stood at 911 in March 2016 with 878 in the Island of Mauritius and 33 in Rodrigues. Of these schools, 717 (79%) were privately 105