National federation to help students with problems

Student unions at three universities are joining forces to offer help to all students in Mauritius who are experiencing ‘problems’.

The unions at the University of Mauritius, University of Technology, Mauritius and the Université des Mascareignes are planning to set up a student federation, reported L’Express of Port Louis.

“It will be a national voice for all students at tertiary institutions,” said Saahir Goolfee, president of the University of Mauritius student union, who believes students are confronted with too many problems.

Examples of problems he cited included the situation of students who had taken a BA course in French with Creole, who faced difficulties finding employment because the ministry had introduced a crash course at the Mauritius Institute of Education qualifying existing teachers to teach Creole at school.

“Those [students] who have taken this course to teach Creole now find themselves out of work. There are about 70 of them,” said Goolfee, who added that at the University of Technology and Mascareignes there were “problems of infrastructure". "The University of Technology football pitch is pitiful. Students have been injured playing football because of pipes strewn around.”

The new federation would start by representing nearly 20,000 students, though it was planned to add other private universities to increase numbers, reported L’Express. “We cannot remain indifferent to the ministry’s lack of consideration regarding these students,” said Goolfee.

The founding members also plan to organise inter-university events to bring together students from all the island’s higher education institutions, and have appealed to the education minister, Leela Devi Dookun-Luchoomun, to take action.

This article is drawn from local media. University World News cannot vouch for the accuracy of the original reports.