Homework on holiday? 13-year-old visitor to Seychelles helping teach maths classes

It was through a relative of the Beau Vallon secondary school's headteacher, Philip Morel, that contact was made for Itahashi to teach at the school. (Seychelles nation) 

(Seychelles News Agency) - A 13-year-old on holiday in Seychelles who has a gift for languages and learning has been teaching maths lessons at Beau Vallon secondary school.

Issey Ryu Itahashi, a Japanese Slovak national, told SNA that he really likes to help others. He is teaching mathematics classes alongside other qualified teachers.

"I have taught at state schools in Slovakia, but that was for a very short time due to schools closing because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but in Seychelles I have been given a chance to teach for a longer period and it has been great," he told SNA.

The 13-year-old said he is showing the students that maths can be fun. He wants to teach them how to better understand the various areas of the subject.

It was through a relative of the Beau Vallon secondary school's headteacher, Philip Morel, that contact was made for Issey to teach at the school. The headteacher was more than happy to accommodate him.

"He always goes to class with a qualified teacher, but the students so far have responded very well to him, as have the other teachers. He has expressed his desire to work with the difficult classes now and we are confident that he can do it and we hope that while he learns from the experience, he can also be an inspiration to other students to strive for their education," Morel told SNA.

While in Seychelles, Itahashi will also share his experience with the students of the School of Advanced Level on Tuesday.

Itahashi is on vacation with his parents and little brother and his mother said that they found out that he was gifted when he was about three years old.

"When he was about two years old, he did not speak, so we communicated mostly through gestures, but when he was about three years old, he started calculating equations and also began to speak, where he actually started speaking about five languages. That's when we realised he was special and took him for IQ tests which he passed even those beyond his level and so we were asked to enroll him in a school for gifted children," said his mother, Miriam Itahashi.

With Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, being a popular tourist destination, some might find it odd that a 13-year-old boy would want to teach during his vacation. Itahashi, though, said that he cannot just do nothing during a three-month vacation.

"It is a long vacation and for me, I don't find it very enjoyable if I am doing nothing, so I decided to try and help the students here instead, which is what I love to do," he said.

Itahashi, who speaks English, Spanish and Slovak, says that aside from his studies, he enjoys playing the piano and has been encouraged by his parents to learn new cultures. He has visited Japan, Cyprus, China, Austria, Poland, Luxembourg, Croatia, Sri Lanka and Seychelles.

The 13-year-old is also one of the world's youngest gemmologist, which is a person who deals with natural and artificial gemstone materials and can certify the quality of these precious materials.

"We were in Sri Lanka once and I bought one of these stones there and when I did my research, I realize that I had been scammed as it was overpriced, so because of that I decided that I wanted to learn how to know the quality and value of these so that others do not go through the same thing as I did," said Itahashi.