Pauline Etienne
16 August 2007
opinion
Port Louis — 2007 is not a good year for the University of Mauritius (UoM). After the announcement of the high deficit of the biggest tertiary education institution a few months back, the return of some students behind their desks seems to have been the top of the cake. And the minister of Education, Dharam Gokhool, continues justifying his actions and decisions - students should be happy they were given a seat at the UoM even if the conditions to start the year are far from optimal.
The beginning of the year at the UoM was quite chaotic. Some first-year students had to go back home for lack of space and even lecturers have flown off the handle, as they refuse to teach to overcrowded classes.
Minister Gokhool asserts that he is only abiding by his programme, which aims at enlarging access to higher education. But he must be able to afford it. How useful is it to accept 3,000 more students if they will be asked to go home on their first day at university? This situation might be temporary but lecturers have already shown their reluctance to teach a bigger number of students. So, the crisis may not be over soon.
In fact, the minister himself might have his hands tied by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) that does not provide him with the proper budget. After the announcement of its hard financial situation, the TEC complied with increasing the budget. But, obviously that was not enough, as the UoM was about to attract even more students for its next beginning of the year.
So, the last resort should be to ask for fees from students who can afford to pay. It may be an unpopular decision but, if the government is serious about making Mauritius into a knowledge hub, there is no other alternative.
The objective of making the university fee-paying is not to reserve seats only for those who have money and transform it into another private university. Equal opportunities should obviously be granted to all young people. But why should those who can afford to pay continue to rely on the government while preventing more young people from benefiting from tertiary education.
With a targeted approach where grants would be offered on social grounds, the university would have the means of building the required infrastructure - thus opening its doors and welcoming more people. It would prevent problems it faced last Monday from occuring again.
But, even more importantly, a fee-paying university would enable the administration to offer more valuable services to all students. A more complete and quality library, more soft support for their courses and better infrastructure are only some of the advantages that would follow from this government decision.
However, I must admit that I have only little hope that the government dares take such a decision that would need communication and time to be accepted. As shown in the cases of free transport and subsidies, the government tends to change its mind when it feels the population is resistant to the proposed change. And yet, it would only require some patience - and maybe courage - before everyone agrees on the validity of such projects.
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