<B>By Dr Saoud BACCUS </B> [email protected]

It now appears that the country is decidedly attempting to move towards a democracy for all, and is bent on reshaping time-honoured established institutions that helped a few to the detriment of many. In this spirit, the time has come to take a serious look at the institution of laureates.

There was a time when it served a purpose. The country, unable to train its best and brightest locally, sent them overseas for more studies and training. After their studies, they would return and work for the country. It also allowed poorer families with bright sons to have an opportunity for university education otherwise unattainable. That was then. Now, it is an entirely different story.

Put aside the bragging rights that it affords to parents of laureates and the subsequent parties and endless speeches to honour their sons and daughters, does it serve any purpose to the country? That should be the bottom line.

Of those who are sent abroad to study, only 40% eventually come back to serve the country. Laureates interviewed have no qualms whatsoever to publicly admit that they have no intention of coming back. Why pay for their studies then if the primary objective of "serving your country" is knowingly not going to be met?

The secondary objective of helping poorer students is no longer achievable either. A quick survey is bound to reveal that only a marginal number of laureates come from poor families. This can be explained by socio-economic factors. Rich folks can afford the best teachers for extra tuition, often their kids take up to three private lessons per subject, they are driven to and from their private teacher?s residence. In other words, everything is geared towards their success. If being born in a rich family is no sin or crime, it is however quite unfair when a civil society allows them to double-dip with no apparent return on investment.

Getting rid of State scholarships would not in any way affect the rich, in case this article appears to some as a leftist piece. Many universities offer scholarships on the basis of academic excellence and/or financial needs. If they so wish, students can apply for international scholarships if they meet the criteria, or enrol in the local university.

How can we best optimize our resources?

The country has a university system now. Rather than send a few overseas to benefit from scholarly teaching offered by good universities, is it now not possible to attract good scholars overseas, even retired professors, to come and teach many here? This option offers an interesting advantage, in that many more than some 15 State-financed Mauritian students can benefit from international-calibre lectures and discussion and sharing of ideas. Instead of sending our laureates to meet the teacher abroad, we bring the teachers here to meet our students. Once they graduate, they will likely stay and help the development of the country.

The country spends over Rs 100m of taxpayers? money to finance the education of these laureates, and how much of that money do we get back in services or knowledge? I may not be able to put a precise price tag in answer to this question, but I am fairly sure we, taxpayers, are not getting any bang for our buck. Use that money, and bring over good international lecturers from different countries to upgrade our teaching. This option allows us to keep the trained students and turn them into service providers for the country.

At a time when we can ill-afford to lose our best talents, we must strive to keep them. Offering them a one-way ticket with all expenses paid is economic suicide. The best countries in the world, not only keep their best people at home, but also attract others to come and participate in their development. While we may not be at the stage where we can attract young talents from overseas, keeping ours to develop the country is for now the first half of the equation.

The laureate system is archaic, way past its sell-by date and definitely has no place in the new society we want to build. It is time to get rid of it.

Dissent between criminal police departments. Sleuths of the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) still cannot admit the fact that the Major Crime Investigation Team (MCIT) has taken the helm of the investigation following the discovery suspect banknotes that could have been used for money laundering. Damaged Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000 notes had been presented at the Bank of Mauritius for exchange. This alerted the financial institution and the police were called in to investigate. It was then suspected that those notes could have something to do with Mauritius Commercial Bank hold-up in February 2005. The CID detectives believe they were on the verge of finding the hiding place of the notes. The decision to entrust the investigation to the MCIT, was made by ACP Tangavel Seerungun last Saturday.

Milk powder goes up by 10 %. The price of imported powdered milk does not stop increasing and it ranges between 6 and 12%. As an example, Farmland, having known an increase of Rs 7.14 the kg, now costs Rs 125.02. The price of milk has increased by at least Rs 5. A big load of Red Cow milk is waiting for the green light of the ministry of Trade to be priced. The price of this milk consumed by a lot of Mauritians, has risen several times within the last months. The same thing applies to Twin Cow milk from Australia. According to Jean How Hong, director of Innodis, drought has had a negative impact on prices. He also believes that it only in mid- 2008, that the situation might get back to normal.

Telecom firm Orange moves in. French giant Orange, the Internet and mobile arm of France Telecom (FT), will settle in Mauritius very soon. According to reports, an agreement has been reached with the Mauritian government at the beginning of the month. Orange has chosen to set up a technical service centre for French-speaking countries in Mauritius. The launching should take place towards the end of the month in the presence of a high-profile personality from the French company.