With an aim to provide quality education, institutions are constantly improving and upgrading their standards and facilities despite facing a host of  internal and external challenges.
The rector of Keats Col­lege, Tony W.K Wong Ah Sui, says: “The first big challenge we face is obviously our quest to get the best out of our intakes who are mostly low achievers and slow learners.”

According to him, the main challenges that private colleges face are external factors that are not within their control. “Both the private and state colleges are competing to get increased student admissions. We are aware that it will be difficult to compete with the state colleges which already have the lion’s share. Also many parents prefer sending their children to new and well equipped state colleges. Whatever is left, in some way, comes to the private colleges,” he says before adding: “The fact that the government is the regulator and at the same time the biggest player, we feel that it is rather unfair. They have become a direct competitor for the private colleges.”

Community ties
Despite many hurdles Keats college has so far not only survived but has stood to be the best jewel in the south. It caters for the pupils living in the vicinity and even from further away places like Curepipe, Mahebourg, Baie du Cap, Le Morne, Surinam, Souillac and Rivière des Anguilles.

“Many of our current students are the children of former students who  have somehow grown up with the school. They know the school from its earlier days when most of the teaching staff were also social workers,” Tony Wong adds.

Since last year, the college has reviewed its strategies. It has devised a plan based on interaction and effective communication in the community. “The college building and infrastructure is used to serve as a facilitation centre where students from surrounding schools are invited to participate in different competitions and events organized by the school. Instead of us going to people we are bringing them towards us. This we do by organizing different open-day activities at our school. Recently we organized a science fair, and an oriental fair and invited primary schools in the area. Our communication lines are also open with many hotels where the pupils could secure work placements in future. It is very important to communicate and bring people closer to us,” says Tony.

In line with their new strategy is the improvement of the student- teacher relationship by increasing the rapport that exists. “Nowadays there are many illnesses in the society and students can only prosper in their studies when the college helps them to keep away from problems such as drugs, broken families, alcohol, among others. Teachers are aware of such issues and we provide for pastoral care and give talks on moral values. We also listen to their problems individually and share experiences. The school starts with a ten minute talk on upcoming events, issues, and problems. And we also have a short talk on a specific value for a week. We communicate with parents regularly and we do keep an individual file for each student,” Tony Wong says before adding: “The consciousness of people has been shaken up. They know that all that glitters is not gold.  The feedback of our community is very encouraging. Our ultimate goal is to form good, efficient and reliable citizens .”