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Since independence in 1968, the Mauritian economy has moved from a monocrop economy to a more diversified middle-income economy. In addition, women’s emancipation in the 1983–2001 period has contributed to an upliftment to the business panorama. Attitudes and behaviours of people engaged in business transactions were mainly regulated by traditions, culture and values stemming from their inherent religious beliefs. In Mauritius, the four predominant religions are Hinduism, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. Each one upholds traditional rituals and festivals which serve to maintain certain business decorum in the country and establish strong corporation and business trades. Nowadays, there are business dealings which are increasingly being scrutinised by the public and independent bodies for transparency and accountability, a situation not obtrusive in the past.

This study adopts a phenomenological approach to gain insights into the evolution of tradition, values and culture during the past 50 years. A survey questionnaire was administered to seven (n = 7) purposive participants and one of them was selected for a structured interview for triangulation purposes. The findings suggest a clear decline in the contribution of religion, tradition and culture in modern-day business dealings, especially in the advent of technology and a gradual increase of corrupt practices triggered principally by sociocultural groups mushroomed around religions. The nexus between these groups and the governing bodies further fuels unethical and obscure practices. It is believed that a digitalisation of the business ecosystem would provide some relief and restore business ethics.

This paper stems from a study which was conducted as a means to first, find out whether there is a gap between the secondary and tertiary education levels, second identify any existing gap in Science and Technology education, and third, examine the impact of the above upon students’ creativity and innovativeness at university level. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

As such, a group of teachers and students at both secondary and tertiary levels were selected as the sample of the study. Questionnaires were administered to trained secondary school teachers and to university students. Interviews were also conducted to triangulate data. These enabled an analysis of the current situation in terms of students’ engagement/creativity/innovativeness in Science and Technology at secondary and tertiary levels.

The findings reveal a problematic situation arising with respect to beliefs and what truly prevails in the education sector at secondary and tertiary levels. This study has revealed a number of salient issues related to the gap existing between the secondary and tertiary levels of education in Mauritius, with special bearing on creativity and innovation in Science and Technology.

Only three institutions were involved, with a small sample of students, so that the findings cannot be generalised. Moreover, gender is a variable that has not been taken into consideration.

The study has proposed a number of recommendations to enable Mauritian students (at secondary and tertiary levels) to develop creativity and hopefully become innovators. This leads us to believe that the recommendations emerging from this study will be beneficial to various stakeholders who wish to understand the gap existing between secondary and tertiary education in Science and Technology education.

This study takes a case study approach adopting a mixture of interviews, surveys and observations to understand the research problems with regards to the younger generations need to be equipped with scientific and technological advances in acquiring knowledge, new sets of skills and values. Therefore, this study endeavours to document the perceptions of learners and faculty staff.