?I recall very well that I did really not like mathematics until I got a great mathematics teacher called Pierre Gamberdela, at secondary level at Lycée Labourdonnais. His dynamism was one of the main factors that made me finally appreciate the subject. The way he dedicated himself to his students was awesome. But his personality itself was the key of his success with the students. I remember how each week he would give us a two-hour assessment whereby he would do everything to distract the atmosphere and distress us in the mean time.

It was phenomenal how good he was. In fact, he would walk in the rows while we were working and talk to us about various things. As an example, during such assessments, he used to come to my desk and ask me how my training was going as he knew I was very involved in sports. As a result, this would engage a conversation between many students and thus (as I said) remove a possible stress from our shoulders.

By doing so, he would allow us to express ourselves on a topic that we were interested in. At the same time, he wanted to facilitate the interaction between us and himself, because in such moments, he would put himself in the student?s shoes. Consequently this would make us feel more at ease with him. Therefore, there was no barrier between him and us. His interest was so wide that it could vary between television programmes, books and so on. These times were always special and enriching. Furthermore, this would lead to very interesting exchanges of ideas provided by Mr. Gambardela?s ideas.

I also had the chance to know some other good teachers. For example, I remember having had a teacher of history and geography, in Mr. Vaure, who was also excellent. He was severe, whilst being funny at the same time. To be more precise, maybe I should say that he knew when to be serious and when to be funny. However, one should not forget that although he could be funny at times, he always inspired respect but without being dictatorial.

There was no chance to hear any uproar in Mr. Vaure?s class as he always explained things in a very captivating way. In so doing, he had the power to make us live the things he was explaining, for example, when he was telling us about the history of France. Moreover, strangely enough, Mr. Vaure was one of the few foreign teachers interested in the history of Mauritius. It was quite stunning and fascinating how he knew so much regarding the eco-political background of the island. Given the fact that we were in a French school, we were very much in the French frame. But Mr. Vaure had the capacity to make us go off the beaten track and it was always a pleasure.

The only teacher I did not appreciate too much was a linguistic teacher. She was too severe and did not have enough sense of humour. I always had the impression that Lycee Labourdonnais was good at forging the personality of youngsters. But she never gave that impression. To conclude, I believe very frankly that Pierre Gambardela was my favourite teacher. He was great as he was above the unexpected. He could climb onto the table and so on just to make us understand things. But more importantly, as I said at the beginning, he made me like coming to his class and made me appreciate a subject that I never thought I would.?