Mobility project for teachers of French in Seychelles launched

The 24 teachers will be working with those from 24 primary schools on the three main islands of Mahe, Praslin and La Digue. (Seychelles Nation)

(Seychelles News Agency) - French teachers in the state primary schools in Seychelles will benefit from the expertise and experience of a group of 25 French language teachers from other countries.

The sharing of expertise is part of a programme aimed a upping the level of French education in Seychelles.

The "Mobility project for teachers of French in the Seychelles" was officially launched on Monday at the National Theatre and 24 out of the 25 teachers from various countries were informed which schools they will be working with.

The 24 teachers will be working with those from 24 primary schools on the three main islands of Mahe, Praslin and La Digue. One will be assigned to the Seychelles Institute of Teacher Education (SITE).

"These voluntary teachers were selected jointly by the OIF and Seychelles, from over more than 700 applicants, from all of the Francophone, to improve the teaching of French in Seychelles," said Faouzia Abdoulhalik, the programme specialist from the permanent representative of the International Organisation of the Francophonie (OIF) of the Indian Ocean.

The teachers come from Belgium, Burkina Faso, France, Madagascar, Mali, Romania and Serbia.

"The objective of the project, is to create a Francophone environment, that will garner more interest from the youth to be part of literary, cultural and sporting events," added Abdoulhalik.

The project was initiated by the OIF following discussions with the President of Seychelles, Wavel Ramkalawan, who expressed his wish to improve the teaching and learning of French in the island nation.

The details of the programme were discussed in a meeting last year between a delegation from the OIF, Cavilam (Centre d'approches modernes des langues et des médias en France), and senior officials from the Ministry of Education at the institution's headquarters in Mont Fleuri.

Vicky Gendron, chief liaison officer at the Ministry of Education, said, "In schools, we do have qualified teachers of the French language, but some do lack some knowledge of the language, especially as they mostly use French when teaching it, as other subjects in school are taught in English."

She said this is why the ministry felt such a project was needed.

She said the teachers will not be teaching French in classes "but will accompany the French language teachers in planning the classes and advise them, which will ensure that it will be the teacher who will benefit more from this project."

The project is for an initial period of one year and can be extended to another year if deemed necessary. 

French is one of the three national languages and the two other are English and Creole.