<B>Johnson Roussety</B> Commissioner of Rodrigues

?I began my primary education at Oyster Bay Government School and remained there until the year I was due to sit for the CPE. I completed my primary schooling at Nicolay Government School, in Port-Louis. Last but not least, I ended up doing my secondary education in Rodrigues College.

Looking back at my educational track, I realise that I have been lucky enough to come across teachers, at each stage of my school life, who had a positive impact on my education and subsequently on my career.

When I was at Oyster Bay Government School, I had a teacher called Rousset Bégué who taught in Standards IV and V. Amongst the multitude of qualities and values he had, his devotion to his job and his students was the first thing that could be noticed and admired. In fact, he was not just an academic educator but much more than that.

Rousset Bégué always aimed at gathering his students together. In simple words, he wanted to make everyone feel united. At that time, Rousset Bégué, was a young lad who had just finished his teacher?s training. I do not know if this was a factor which made him one of the first teachers to have a close relationship with his students. The number of outings he organised was a simple example to show the means he would use to create a sense of unity within the class.

Rousset Bégué was a great worker as he would dedicate himself to his profession from early morning till late afternoon. He gave private tuition to a small group of students and I was among them. What surprised me most was the fact that, as he knew my mother was a widow and we were quite poor, he did not ask me for tuition fees.

Once, I remember he said that I had invented something. We were given maps of Rodrigues and we had to name the rivers on the map. However, I did not like to scrawl and doodle on papers. Consequently, I took another sheet of paper and wrote the names of the rivers and put a number next to each of them and, in the mean time, I put the numbers on the map as keys.

All these elements contributed to make me acknowledge that the type of education he was giving us had nothing to do with what could have been merely academic training and teaching.

During one of our school holidays, when he had to travel to Mauritius he collected money from the different families of his students and purchased books and other materials the students needed. Rousset Bégué used to live in the same village as I did (Acacia). With time, we developed a great friendship. He also gave me some practical advice when I entered politics. Moreover, I remember that on the main door of his house that was being built at the time, there were some proverbs that made me reflect on his philosophy of life.

At secondary level, there were two teachers who really marked me. The first one was Meeken Bhowany, a Maths teacher. She was extremely rigorous and serious, more importantly I may say that she was very bright. Before having her as my Maths teacher, I was not particularly good at this subject. When she taught us, she made things look easy and contributed a lot to my success in mathematics.

Last but not least, the teacher I would like to pay tribute to is a special one: Nicolas Von Mally. He was my teacher for agricultural science in Form V. Like Rousset Bégué, he would not limit himself to academic issues fixed by the curriculum. He managed to instill a certain amount of love for agriculture in me. In addition to this, he demonstrated to me the importance of this subject. He was very meticulous, for example in his drawings of structures on the board.

For example, he drew the structure of skin on the board one day, and I can still remember how good the drawing was, to the extent that you could visualize things and understand them at first sight. Hence, he helped me to get good marks when I sat for the exam and I am very grateful for what he did for me.

In terms of memories, I have to say that I have wonderful ones of my time as a student. Of course I had some bad moments as well,such as the annoying lines that I had to write sometimes such as: ?I must do my homework? or ?I must behave in class.?

Obviously there were also teachers I did not like as they did not know to inculcate a certain desire to learn into us. Nevertheless, I would like to conclude by emphasizing how unforgettable and how good the moments I had in school were.

Coming back to the teachers I mentioned and some whom I have not talked about, I would like to thank them for having stood by me, for having been so kind to me and especially for having believed in me.?