Numerous are those students who are still paying their bus fares to travel to their tertiary institutions. The next question that is generally and obviously asked is: why? A simple and frustrating reason is that the NTA has not yet given us our bus passes. This is where there is a dead-end and everybody turns a blind eye to the fact that we are deprived of our right to free travel as the government promised.

People prefer to be ignorant than to face such issues. Another urgent and reminding fact is that we, students, especially the ones living in the the North have to pay three bus fares to reach our institution in Quatre-Bornes. Does the NTA realise that more than one month has already elapsed and we are still paying for transport, which is meant to be free for us. Of course, it is we who have to perish in this unending predicament with nobody to help us out of it.

We have made several attempts to convince the bus conductor that we are heading to our tertiary institution and that our bus passes are being processed at the NTA and that we are not supposed to pay? However, all our efforts have been futile. Instead, we find ourselves humiliated, ending up being the laughing stock of other passengers.

This usually happens when the bus conductor tries to enquire where we are heading and why. He taunts us, claiming that we should have an approved NTA bus pass. It is a painful truth that many of us prefer to keep quiet and put up with this injustice by paying our fares ? but how long will we have to endure it?

Ignoring the problem will only deepen our ordeal and not relieve us. It seems as if we are being discriminated against and rejected. We therefore request and remind the NTA of the urgent need for our bus passes. We suggest that, while our bus passes are being processed, the NTA offers us evidence of our identity - a tertiary student in the wake of achieving our right to travel free.

<I>Tertiary Students</I>