Get a way out and improve your life at several levels!
Unfortunately, almost every country in the world have been affected by the COVID 19 pandemic and as a result, this has led to the deterioration of almost all societal indicators except environment both at their national and international level.
It is obvious that in Mauritius some particular categories of people have adversely been affected more than others. In regards to youth, we have noticed that there are ten categories which have been more affected who are listed as follows:
- Children who are in Grade 6
- Children who are in Grade 9
- Third-year university students (due to submission of the final dissertation and also final exams)
- Unemployed people
- Other youths who don’t have job security and have a risk of being fired after the lockdown
- Unstable household young couples with children
- Unstable household young couples who don’t have a stable income and rely on the informal sector
- Unstable household young couples who have rent to pay or have a home loan
- People in drug addiction as we can see how in the past few years many of our youths have unfortunately been the vicious target synthetic drug and lastly
- Households who are in the circle of absolute poverty
These 10 categories listed above would unfortunately be affected by the pandemic the most.
Fortunately we have several NGOs, social workers, and some activists who are already taking initiatives at several levels to counter the impact especially for those who are affected the most in this time of crisis.
For Grade 6 students the E platform is quite complex but there are no alternate ways in this lockdown for the next three months. Luckily we have a dedicated teacher Mrs. Yasminabhai Vallijee who produces many useful content and explanations on her Facebook page for free. Consequently if we manage to structure the online courses that she provides at a national level, many students will benefit.
In regards to Grade 9 to Grade 13, the situation was alarming even before COVID 19. For example even if it is far better than world statistics of which is 1 out of 5 people is illiterate, still, we have many improvements to do. Last year out of 18,000 students who took part in the School Certificate, only 5000 had managed to obtain the minimum number of credits required to get access in Lower 6. On average out of 10 children who join Grade 1 only 5 manage to become a School Certificate holder and 2 out of the 10 managed to become an HSC certificate holder. In addition approximately 7% of our Mauritian children are deprived of basic education. The quantity factor is not the only issue as our system is poor in terms of quality as well.
These results in a lack of soft skills development at schools/colleges like communication, negotiation, problem-solving, listening amongst others.
In the same line less attention is given to personality building development and empowerment for entrepreneurship.
Hence we are working on a project to digitalize our education system so that more students get access to alternate digital explanations which can help them to pass their exams. Meanwhile due to the confinement, we have set up a soft infrastructure on the social networks to offer tuition via ZOOM by using a special pedagogy so that students can prepare for their upcoming examinations.
Digital resources are more effective for Grade 9 students and onwards. Being the Ambassador of the World Literacy Foundation in Mauritius, it is good to highlight that we have got the opportunity to discover a unique digital technology of solar tablets known as sun books which have helped thousands of students in Uganda deprived of basic education and don’t have basic facilities like internet connection, electricity nor human resources to acquire a basic education. These solar tablets can be implemented in Mauritius to address the problem of 7% of children who are deprived of basic education in Mauritius.
We believe that out of 10 students who join Grade 1, 8 should become a School Certificate holder and 5 out of the 10 should become an HSC holder so as to effectively and efficiently be immersed in these following sectors the government had intended to develop as follows: AI, Robotics, Fintech, Blue Economy as stated by MP Honorable Tania Diol in Parliament for summing up a debate of the governmental program.
In regards to unemployed people or job seekers, the economic, business, and entrepreneur commission of NGO Zeness Exprime Toi has set a cooperative where we help members to raise funds based on their capacity. All money that is generated is compulsory for the members to use for investment purposes that are to expand their existing business or to start a new business. We help youngsters to sell products to members of the public and when they purchasing it they know that they are not only getting something to consume but are also helping a youngster of between 18 to 40 to become an entrepreneur.
In addition we also extend our services by offering business consultancy services to help entrepreneurs in doing business.
For the empowerment, we are setting up an academy which has three modules for entrepreneurs, adult and also teenagers.
Our aim is to help all other organizations to counter the negative impact caused by COVID 19 on our societal indicators especially the most affected ones.
In regards with freshly graduated or 3rd-year university we hope the government keeps going with the undergraduate program scheme which is also useful for the development of new SMEs too, especially in such economic condition whereby the FMI and our minister of finance are forecasting a negative economic growth of 6.8% as well as also expecting unemployment rate of approximately 17% which will be equivalent 100,000 unemployed people locally. In addition, our tourism sector which represents 23% of our GDP will be affected.
The economic challenges caused by COVID 19 is not the sole issue since we can still enjoy economic efficiency but social justice must also be presented and this is why projects must be initiated to fight poverty by helping people in absolute poverty so as they can become productive and climb up the social ladder. We must also work to counter the crisis of food. Mauritius relies too much on imports for agricultural products that we consume. An organization must be set to address the issue of food security.
Parents should also play an important role to empower our youngsters and ensure they are not affected by the phenomena of drug abuse in this new era post-COVID 19as according to Reacher, more than 75% of people fell in drug addiction under the age of 20 and teenage pregnancy issues must also be addressed of which over 100 cases are reported annually in Mauritius.
