Africa-Press – Seychelles. To kick-start the resumption of face to face learning yesterday morning, the Minister for Education, Dr Justin Valentin, visited four schools – Bel Eau, La Rosière and Plaisance primary and secondary schools.
The minister was accompanied by the principal secretary for Education Sector Development, John Lesperance; principal education officer, Merna Eulentin and the director of Education for Strategic Priorities Alex Souffe.
The delegation was first accompanied by the head teacher of Bel Eau school, Jane Laurette, and her management team, where they briefed Minister Valentin and his team on how was the resumption of face to face learning.
The ministerial delegation visited various classes and had a chat with the children. Ms Laurette put forward the needs of the school and is working in close collaboration with the Ministry of Education to get things sorted out.
“After the visits, I am happy to see the management quite composed and ready to welcome back the children at school. I want to reassure the parents that your children will be in good hands. All the teachers know the routine and how to handle the situation we are living in,” Minister Valentin said after the visit.
Commenting on staff that need to be replaced, following early retirement or sickness, Minister Valentin confirmed that “the ministry is aware of all cases where teachers are home due to Covid-19 and we are also receiving applications from former teachers who left the ministry. We also seize the opportunity to invite the trained teachers who left the ministry to apply back as there is space for them. Some left due to illnesses or personal commitment but that will not impact the start of the school.”
Regarding the La Rosière school, Minister Valentin noted that this project started in 2014 and did not progress much. “Now this project has been transferred to people with competence and we hope to see some light with it. Right now, we do not have any choice but to have some classes in other institutions and for now we have not received any complaints from parents or teachers regarding this arrangement.”
Generally, Minister Valentin shared that the infrastructure of the schools demand more attention. “For now we will tackle the most urgent situations and we will see if we can further move towards a major renovation.”
Minister Valentin also talked about the importance of respecting the ‘Zoning’ while doing admission for the children and also noted that he will be visiting other schools including private schools in the coming weeks.
Yesterday morning, there was a small hiccup at La Rosière school where the head teacher, Beryl Botsoie, explained that three parents went directly to the Ministry of Education to register their child to the school’s daycare.
“At that time all of our year one crèches were full and we had to seek permission from the Ministry of Education to open an extra room at the English River to accommodate children. When the parents turned up this morning, they were told to bring their children to English River but they were not happy. After some consultation, they were transferred to Bel Eau Annexe and the situation was resolved.
“La Rosière school has a population of almost 1100 every year. This year we have 1043 students with 103 staff. The year has started well and we started working on January 10 where all teachers confirmed their classes. We also contacted the Ministry of Education on our issues we are having such as staff that are absent and in general we are ok to kick-start the year. We are currently missing a teacher for P1, P5, P6 and 5 teacher assistants and all of this has been taken up by the ministry and we are in the process of recruiting.”
Ms Botsoie also shared that having the La Rosière pupils in different institutions is hard. “There is a management person in the schools to accompany the students. We have been waiting for our school for six years now and we hope to have it soon.”
Students and parents are advised to follow the news from the MoE in order to know when their child should be at school and at what time are the tuitions aired online.
The accompanying photos show some highlights of Minister Valentin’s visits at Bel Eau and Plaisance schools.
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