“We are being thrown out of buses by conducters,” commented Tilouis, 17, from the Joie de Vivre centre in Chemin-Grenier – one of the 16 Anfen centres – less than a month ago. But he and his friends have decided not to give up the fight and are determined to obtain recognition from the government. This is why a group of students from Anfen (Adolescents Non-Formal Education Network) went to the prime minister’s office last Thursday to hand-deliver a petition with over 12,000 signatures – including those of 16 MPs – to ask the government to grant them free transport like any other students in the country.

“We, the 569 adolescents of the Anfen network, have been the victims of severe injustice since the introduction of free transport in 2005.” They have set the tone. These adolescents who have always felt ignored by the traditional school system are once again being left out. While all other students in the country are being given free transport to go to school, they are simply being thrown out of buses.

The irony is that these students were just starting to feel they had a reason to go to school, that they could well become “someone” in society, contrarily to the impression they had while they were in traditional schools.

The centres in the Anfen network are all there to cater for pupils who have failed the Certificate of Primary Education (CPE) several times and can’t even adapt to the prevocational schools implemented by the government. These children, who lost their self-confidence somewhere on the way, are slowly realizing that they are not at all stupid. But this new injustice makes them feel “more excluded than they already felt,” explains the president of the network, Aline Leal.

This injustice is all the more flagrant as these children generally come from poor areas. They are the ones who really need free transport, as their parents or tutors sometimes don’t even have enough money to feed them every day. This is why these children are resorting, as a last chance, to “calling upon the prime minister’s understanding and compassion”.