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Avinash Meetoo

Avinash Meetoo

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Education

Education is confusing

12 August 2015 By Avinash Meetoo 5 Comments

20150813-education-is-confusing

Today, Christina and I had an interesting conversation with a young man who has just finished studying Computer Science for the past three years.

We were a bit surprised when he mentioned that, even though he is now a degree holder and is looking for a job, he does not want to work in IT. In fact, he told us that he does not like Computer Science a lot.

Naturally we asked him why he chose to study Computer Science given that he had other areas of interest and his answer was revealing: “No one helped me choose and I chose badly!”

A lack of guidance

The professional world is becoming more and more complex. New jobs and career possibilities are being created on a daily basis. Unfortunately, young people are not being advised properly:

  • Some parents decide for their children without asking them what they are passionate about. I feel that some of the lawyers, doctors, accountants, and, now, finance people and computer scientists are not very happy in their profession. Of course, they might be getting a nice enough salary but nothing beats doing something which you like.
  • The career guidance service, which exists in principle in secondary schools, is outdated. As I wrote above, new jobs and career possibilities are being created on a daily basis. It is difficult to keep abreast of those changes. I can imagine that some of the career guidance officers (who have mostly never worked in the private sector) are quite at a loss when having to explain to young people the career prospects in, for example, statistical analysis, digital marketing, game design or artificial intelligence.

Education can be confusing

Education comes from a Latin word which means “going outside” metaphorically, in the sense that education should be about discovering new and interesting things every day.

Unfortunately, in Mauritius, education mostly means staying inside and getting a degree. My point is that a lot of young people go through years and years of schooling without ever uncovering what they really like and/or what they are very good at. Of course, this becomes problematic when they have to choose subjects at Form IV, Form VI and at university.

Mauritius is a small country and we cannot afford to have unhappy and unproductive lawyers, doctors, accountants, finance people and computer scientists instead of happy and productive statistical analysts, digital marketers, game designers and AI specialists (for example).

This needs to change. What do you think?

Filed Under: Education, Society, Technology

A Smarter Mauritius

30 June 2015 By Avinash Meetoo 12 Comments

20150630-smart-city

The talk of the town in Mauritius at this moment (apart from the various scandals) is the concept of the Smart City, which is nicely explained by this infographics available on the Board of Investment website. A Smart City and, by extension, a Smart Mauritius, has to have:

  • A Smart Environment where people can practice Smart Living (in other words, respect nature and live with less stress)
  • Smart Mobility (use the car only when needed and maximise public transportation and bicycles like in most occidental cities)
  • Smart Citizens who have been educated through Smart Education
  • A Smart Government (which is not only preoccupied with the next elections but rather the development and advancement of the country as a whole)
  • Smart Businesses (which can develop new products and enter new markets by innovating)
  • Smart Infrastructure (which can sustain and satisfy future demands)
  • and Smart Utility (so that the country does not suffer from brownouts or droughts in the future)

Naturally, it is not smart to believe that we can transform our country into a Smart Country just by bringing in some consultants and praying that building some morcellements and roads will suffice. The key to making Mauritius a Smart Mauritius is the population of the country.

Our education system needs to be drastically changed so that anyone who finishes schools (at any level: primary, secondary or tertiary) is a Smart Person:

20150630-intelligent

A Smart Person as shown above (courtesy of an infographics by the Huffington Post) is:

  • Intelligent
  • Brilliant
  • Knowledgeable
  • Intellectual
  • Competent
  • Innovative
  • Confident
  • Professional
  • and a bit Arrogant too (or is that Self-Belief?)

Personally, I am sure that our education system can be revamped to produce such Smart People provided we better use (in the good sense of the phrase) Smart Lecturers, Smart Teachers and Smart Educators, foreigners or not. In my opinion, there are a number of excellent educators in the country but we need to supplement them with excellent educators from abroad (like Singapore did in fact a decade ago).

Students need to be Smart Students too. They need to focus more on Knowledge, Skills and the Joy of Learning instead of going to tuition, passing exams and obtaining a certificate.

Focusing on STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) is also mandatory. The Smart World is a technological world and a country like Mauritius cannot afford not to have Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths professionals of sufficient caliber.

[Thanks to Sachin to bring art and culture to my attention: Developing the artistic talents and culture of the population, especially young people, is mandatory too. Like all humanists, I really think that everyone has the capacity to do wonderful things provided (1) she discovers and develops her talent and (2) she is given the possibility / opportunity to contribute, disrupt and bring much-needed changes.]

Is that too much to ask? What do you think?

Filed Under: Art, Education, Science, Society, Technology

The new Mauritian National Identity Card

20 September 2013 By Avinash Meetoo 57 Comments

As from 1st October 2013, all citizens of the Republic of Mauritius, who already have an ID card, should replace it with a new ID card.

The vision

The Government wants to provide all Mauritians with a high-security ID card linked to a new population database to serve as an ID document to prove identity and to allow more secure and reliable access to government e-services.

With this new form of identification and authentication, we will only need to carry one identity document instead of multiple documents. Maybe we won’t need to have our driving licenses with us all the time as all policemen will have identity card readers and real-time access to the population database. Another stated benefit is that people will also be able to access Governmental eservices at home or at work using their personal identity card readers.

What data is stored?

As pictured above, the following information is going to be printed on the front of the card:

  • A black and white photo
  • The ID Number
  • Surname, first name and surname at birth
  • Gender (“M”, “F”)
  • Date of birth
  • Signature
  • SC logo for Senior Citizens to access benefits such as the bus pass

On the back of the card, we will have:

  • A barcode, presumably to make the ID card number easier to read by a machine
  • A card control number, presumably to check whether the ID card number (encoded in the barcode) has been read properly
  • The ID Number of the person again
  • The Date of issue
  • The name in case there is not enough space to print the name on the front side of the card

In addition to the printed information, the ID card is a smart card and contains a chip which will store the following data:

  • The photo, ID number, surname, first name, surname at birth, gender, date of birth
  • The residential address
  • Four fingerprint templates (2 thumb and 2 index fingerprints by default)
  • A digital certificate

Note that the residential address is not printed on the card. Someone stealing your ID card won’t know where you live…

What is a fingerprint template?

The chip will only store a mathematical model (i.e. a “template”) of the fingerprint, not an actual image. This is mainly for two reasons: (1) the amount of data to be stored is smaller and (2) this makes for faster processing time.

My interpretation of this is that someone accessing a very secure e-service will have to go through a two-step authentication procedure. First, the person will have to insert the ID card in an identity card reader to prove ownership of the card. Secondly, the person will have to scan his fingerprint to prove his identity. This eliminates the case of someone stealing the card of someone else and impersonating him or her. Could this two-step authentication be done otherwise i.e. without resorting to fingerprints? Yes, by using, say, retinal scanners or similar invasive and expensive techniques. My point is that fingerprints are not that bad…

What about data safety?

A digital certificate is stored in the chip of the ID card. This is to ensure that an identity card reader can only read the data on an ID card when validated through the Mauritius National Identity Scheme (MNIS) Certificate Authority. In other words, all stored data is encrypted on the ID card and can only be unencrypted by an identity card reader if and only if the MNIS Certificate Authority approves that.

Furthermore, the whole system is protected by security appliances, access controls mechanisms, security policies, physical security, etc.

It looks like a lot of thoughts has gone into making the system as secure as possible.

The new ID card will only justify its high cost when…

This new ID card will cost a fortune and people need to understand that it is only a means of identifying and authenticating someone.

We will only have a good return on this massive investment if and only if most Governmental services become e-services. It’s high time that we, Mauritians, stop wasting our time having to go to Port-Louis, Phoenix or Ebène just to submit a form. Will this happen soon? I have some doubts…

In conclusion

  • The ID card is nothing to worry about in principle.
  • Most Governmental services need to become e-services soon or else we’re just wasting tons on money.

[All pictures courtesy of the Mauritian National Identity Card website]

Filed Under: Computing, Education, News, Society, Technology

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