Togo/Education: Numbers open the back-to-school ball at ESAM

The annual commencement conference at the École Supérieure d'Audit et de Management (ESAM) has become a highly respected ritual. This time, the meeting once again lived up to its promise and was held on November 8 at ESAM headquarters.

Also, Alain Burlaud, professor emeritus at the École nationale supérieure des arts et métiers and president of the scientific council of ESAM, proposed a new theme to the students and other guests present at this conference.

Thus, this back-to-school conference focused on management by numbers: "Never without my number." Through this theme, the speaker hopes that the audience understands that in reality everything is governed by numbers.

The speaker made it clear that numbers are used to identify us, such as those found on identity cards and those used in passwords to access various services. He also said that numbers are used to judge us based on the grades given to us by teachers, bankers, or employers.

However, when asked whether the assigned numbers should be accepted, the speaker suggests that we must learn to put the value of numbers into perspective. According to him, the figures may have been falsified and may contain unverified references, so the audience must question how the figures are generated each time, and their true value.

For his part, Roger Mifetou, general and educational director of ESAM, presents this conference as a meeting for reflection led by an academic and which allows young people to rely on and take a step back from our various daily activities.

For the Director, this is not a message that means we should do without figures, quite the contrary. He goes on to state that we should rely more on figures. It is therefore important to question a figure that is given to us and verify the basis on which it was produced, concluded the Director of ESAM.

THE EMISSARY