YUVA had launched the Mauritian Student Essay Contest 2017 on the next system in the month of March of this year. With a panel of respected politicians, activists and scholars as judges, we have chosen the best original essays by a secondary, an undergraduate, and a graduate. The winners are as follows:
| NAME | CATEGORY | NAME OF THE INSTITUTION | RESULT |
| Amina Bibi Oderuth | Graduate | University of Mauritius | WINNER |
| Bundhoo Samianah Tehseen Bibi | Secondary | Pamplemousses State Secondary School | WINNER |
| Nandini Ramkhalawon | Secondary | Swami Vivekananda State Secondary School | WINNER |
| Chooramun Jeshna | Secondary | Mahatma Gandhi Institute Secondary School | 1ST RUNNER UP |
| Namseet Ghurbhurrun | Secondary | Queen Elizabeth Collage | 1ST RUNNER UP |
| Nishtee Devi Tauckoor | Secondary | France Boyer De La Giroday SSS
|
1ST RUNNER UP |
| Toorabally Bibi Summaiyah Nooreena | Secondary | Bon et Perpetuel Scours Beau-Bassin | 2ND RUNNER UP |
| Dochinah Vencatasawmy | Secondary | Sodnac SSS | 2ND RUNNER UP |
| Appadhoo Khristee | Secondary | Pamplemousses SSS, Beau Plan | 2ND RUNNER UP |
All the awardees will be publicly awarded on Saturday, 16 December 2017 at the YUVA 3rd Anniversary Celebration.
Why this contest?
The current system is failing all around us. The economy is stagnating. The political system is stalemated. Communities are in decay. The lives of thousands are compromised by economic and social pain. Violence is endemic among individuals, communities, and nations. Civil liberties are eroding. Near-record numbers of citizens remain incarcerated. Underemployment, inequality, and ecological despoliation deepen day by day. The planet itself is threatened by climate change. A generation of young people expects to be worse off than their parents. The very idea of building a cooperative community of caring responsibility has faded from public discourse and common understanding.
Essay question: But if you don’t like the present system...what’s your alternative?
The time has come to think boldly about what is required to deal with the systemic difficulties we are facing. It is time to begin a real conversation about genuine alternatives. It is time to develop thoughtful, system-building answers to system-threatening challenges. It is time to debate what it will really take to move in a new direction capable of producing sustainable, lasting and more democratic social, economic, and ecological outcomes.
To this end, YUVA launched the Mauritian Student Essay Contest 2017 on the next system. We’re throwing open the debate to a wide range of contributors willing to do the hard work of moving beyond critique to proposing solutions in the form of comprehensive alternative political-economic system models and approaches that are different in fundamental ways from the failed systems of the past and present. Such visions might include not only core economic institutions but also – as far as is possible – political structure, cultural dimensions, transition pathways, and so forth.
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