Republic of Mauritius- Winners of the InnovED 2019 competition rewarded

In his address on behalf of the Minister of Finance and Good Governance, the consultant of the Ministry of Financial Services and Good Governance, Dr Doobree, lauded the participants for their great skills and innovative ideas adding that the high level of participation demonstrates the vibrant growing innovative culture in schools.  According to him, it is imperative to constantly innovate in order to perform well on the global market. InnovEd, he added, will help in developing the innovative quotient of the youth as well as unlock their latent creative aspect thus laying the foundation of an innovative nation.

He recalled that Mauritius is ranked as the highest performing economy in Africa as per the Global Innovation Index and holds the 75^th position out of 126 countries on the international front. The youth, he said, should be given the appropriate platform to unleash their talents and InnovEd is the most appropriate engine to help them achieve greater success in the future.

For his part, the Chairman of the NPCC, Mr Sanjiv Mulloo, laid strong emphasis on the importance of teamwork so as to trigger innovative ideas which will contribute to the economic progress of the country.  He dwelt on the rapid changing world which necessitates the adoption of the right techniques and innovation to adapt to an ever changing job and labour market.

InnovEd 2019

The 2019 edition, is a joint initiative of the NPCC and the Ministry of Education and Human Resources, Tertiary Education and Scientific Research, has as concept “Mind to Market”, that is, to translate creative ideas of students into products or services having a potential to be marketed. InnovEd 2019 kicked off with a Master Class in innovation for teachers, following which they were encouraged to set up Innovation Clubs in their schools. Another innovation introduced by the NPCC is the CREAThon.

The CREAThon concept limited the amount of time for team of students and their facilitator to improve their projects and prepare an Elevator pitch under the guidance of a local expert.  The competition was launched in February this year with aim to promote creativity and innovation at school level in addition to fostering a culture of innovation in line with the NPCC’s Strategic Plan.

Some 500 participants from some 45 secondary institutions and the Mauritius Institute of Training and Development centres took part in the competition. There were some 155 students and 31 facilitators who registered on the platform and were involved in around 31 different innovative projects.

The winning teams were each awarded a cash prize of Rs 20 000, Innoved certificates and an innovation toolbox for their innovation club. The winners for InnovED 2019 are as follows:

Interactive media category: Virtual Tour of the Mauritian Cultural Heritage

Winner: Sebastopol SSS

Design category: My pet coffin

Winner: France Boyer de la Giroday SSS

Cultural Heritage category: The comeback of Ros Kari

Winner: Royal College Curepipe

Language and Publishing category: La fable revistee

Winner: Professor Hassab Raffa SSS

Visual Arts and Crafts category: Melted Plastic Art

Winner: Queen Elizabeth College

Performing Arts category: The five elements of nature

Winner: College Ideal