Many of his former students or colleagues were present yesterday morning for the special occasion. The La Tour Koenig State Secondary School was officially renamed after an ?illustrious son of the Republic of Mauritius?, Frank Richard. The ceremony was an opportunity for the minister of Education, Dharam Gokhool, the minister of Local government, James Burty David, and his son, Jean-Marie Richard, to recall the contribution of the ?teachers? teacher? in the lives of his students and the people who worked with him as well as pay tribute to his humanity.

Frank Richard died ten years ago at the age of 80. But it seems his memory is still living in all those who have encountered him. ?He has been a source of inspiration for generations of students,? said James Burty David. He was indeed seen as one of the ?best teachers of English and English literature this country has ever known,? the minister of Education pointed out. He had a passion for this language and, more importantly, managed to pass it onto those who learnt from him. ?Who among the elders here does not recall Mr Richard?s literacy and oratory talents when he was talking of Shakespeare and the greatest English writers (?) His name and fame as an excellent teacher, orator and intellectual was recognised beyond our shores,? he added.

Frank Richard actually came from quite a humble environment, which sometimes forced him to get out of the train at Eau-Coulée and walk to Royal College of Curepipe because he was short of money. It is thanks to a scholarship from the British Council that he managed to pursue university studies. When he came back, he spent long years at the Royal College before moving on as head of the Teachers? Training College. His contribution there led Utama Bissoondoyal to write in his tribute published in l?express soon after his death: ?Richard was the teachers? teacher; he was the unproclaimed mentor; he was the creator of so many of us, particularly those who had been his students at the Royal College and then worked under him at the Institute of Education.? Frank Richard was indeed the first director of the MIE but also Permanent Secretary at the ministry of Education.

Prem Burton, a former director of the Private Secondary Schools Authority, still remembers how ?humane? he was. ?When I was teaching, he came twice as an inspector to eventually confirm me as a teacher. I also used to work with him. He was really impressive but he always used to make us feel at ease during discussions.?

Frank Richard?s son, Jean-Marie, perfectly agrees with Uttama Bissoondoyal when the latter wrote that he was a man ?of no boundaries of the Renaissance who could also be moved so much by the plight of the underprivileged or by the becoming of Rodrigues and Mauritius?. Jean-Marie Richard, who appeared moved during the whole ceremony, also recalled how ?progressive and humanist he was?.

<B>Quite severe lover of English</B>

This is probably what led him to ?refuse any British decorations that he was offered because he considered them as the ?perpetuation of colonialism?. It is only at the end of his life, when he was nearly 80 years old, that he accepted his decoration as Commander of the Order of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean for his contribution to the country?. At this time, he confided to his son: ?I am going to accept it. Now it is my country that recognises me and decorates me, it is my duty to accept it.?

His grandchildren seem to have kept the image of quite a severe lover of the English language who had a particular interest in their reports when they came back home. ?It was a bit of stress when we had our results because we knew he would analyse it in minute detail,? recalls Stéphanie. But she also remembers how she ?benefited from his books and especially from the notes he had written in there?.

But, above all, Frank Richard remains in their memories, as in those of his students and colleagues, as a teacher and a student himself ?who had no limits to intellectual curiosity. He was thirsty for knowledge,? as James Burty David remarked. It was a pure delight to listen to this master in literature,? he still remembers.

The family has offered the school a set of encyclopaedias and pledged to thereafter help the ICT lab with the necessary equipment in consultation with the directorate and the teaching staff as a sign of support to the school.

It will then be the responsibility of the school to make sure it deserves the name of someone who was ?profoundly devoted to the causes he championed?, as minister Gokhool put it. This sentence of the rector, Mrs Y. Philogène, at the beginning of the ceremony, could act as a reply to this wish. ?This celebration lies within the framework of our desire to give the best to our pupils.?