GIST Tech-i Competition : Taahirah Goolbar reaches the semi-finals

A moment of pure delight for the Mauritian people. Taahirah Goolbar has reached the semi-final of the Global Innovation Contest. Her goal: representing our small country in an international contest and put Mauritius on the global map. For that, she is appealing to her fellow citizens to vote for her project entitled ‘TO CAHIER’.

Lady Luck was on the side of Taahirah Goolbar when she opened her student mail during her days at the University of Mauritius. She found out for the first time about Global Innovation through a Science and Technology contest. She twice took part in the contest but was not successful. However, she did not lose faith in her potential.

“I remained subscribed to their mailing list and have been updated about their activities regularly. This is the third time that I’m applying for this competition, and finally, I’ve reached the semi-final,” she narrates.

‘TO CAHIER’ Project

A brilliant idea germinated in the mind of Taahirah when people advised her give private tuitions when she was unemployed. “I knew that private tutoring was getting obsolete. In this context, a concept to create a mobile application to replace tuition was born, as almost all students nowadays own a Smartphone. I spent a lot of time on the design so as to render it more effective. Making my own plan, trying to figure out how to give life to this project of mine, approaching the MRC for guidance, I’ve finally used it for this contest,” she adds.

Later, she named the mobile application ‘To Cahier’, which is mainly dedicated to subject matters like Biology and Chemistry. She is planning to use this platform for other subjects also in the near future. The application has a simple interface. Instead of going to private tuitions all year round, students can choose chapters they find difficult for a bare minimum cost on the application. The content is according to the national syllabus and users can get 24/7 personal assistance from the comfort of their homes.

Taahirah explains that students all over the island can get access to quality educational material at a drastically lower price than what they pay for private tuitions. There will also be a discussion forum where they can discuss topics. Students from star schools, private schools as well as any other ‘small’ school will have access to the same material, same assistance and same discussions. Like this, they can save much more time and money.

The U.S. Department of State announced this year’s 109 GIST Tech Semifinalists from 46 emerging economies on the 25th of January. The semifinalists were chosen by the Tech-I Alumni Mentors, who reviewed hundreds of applications to pick their top applicants.

The 46 emerging economies include some African countries, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Egypt, Syria, Armenia, among others. “I’m the only Mauritian in the list and to my knowledge, maybe the first one since this contest has been implemented in 2011,” she says proudly.

How to vote for the semi-finalist?

The 22nd February is the last day to vote and one person can vote once every 24 hours. You will need to register on GIST Tech-i (where you are linked to other opportunities as well) and login to vote. (Mauritius, Taahirah Goolbar, To cahier).

To support Mauritius to reach the final, vote for Taahirah’s “To cahier” at http://www.gistnetwork.org/content/vote. Register yourself to the site and login then vote for ‘To Cahier’. You can repeat until the 22nd of February.