Aspire to be a teacher, education ministry urges |06 October 2015

The Ministry of Education has launched a new programme in its quest to attract more young Seychellois to the teaching profession.

Named the ‘Teacher Aspiring Programme’, the initiative wishes to attract students from Secondary 3 to Secondary 5, from the School of Advanced Level Studies (Sals) as well as from other professional centres.

The programme was officially launched yesterday afternoon by the Minister for Education in a short ceremony at the Seychelles Institute of Teacher Education (Site).

The ceremony was part of activities to mark Teachers’ Week and coincided with Teachers’ Day.

Minister Mondon stressed that because of the launch of the important programme, the day will remain a memorable one in the history of education in Seychelles.

She once more emphasised the crucial role of the teacher in enhancing the quality of the education system.

“Quality education is only possible through quality teachers and quality teaching,” she said.

Mrs Mondon reminded that recruitment of teachers remains a challenge as for the last years the education ministry has not been attracting the number of teachers required. This is why, she added, teacher recruitment and retention have been identified as one of the priorities of the Education Medium-Term Strategic Plan.

She called on aspiring teachers to make use of the opportunities offered by the Teacher Aspiring Programme to make a smooth transition to the teaching profession.

She stressed that the country needs them to teach the next generation and called upon them to use their own inspiration to inspire other potential teachers.

The minister wished them success in their studies and expressed the hope to see them at Site one day, to as she said “make a difference in the lives of young people”.

The Minister for Education however underlined that attracting good academic students is not enough, as it relies on every Seychellois to encourage young people to take up teaching.

She asked every school teacher to attract at least one student in their footsteps.

“If there was one teacher from each Seychellois family, there would be no teacher shortage in Seychelles,” Mrs Mondon said.

She concluded that there are meanwhile good signs as some teachers who had left the profession are coming back.

According to the principal secretary for early childhood, primary and secondary education Merida Delcy, the ‘Aspire to be a Teacher Programme’ features as a key strategy in the teacher retention and recruitment target of the Education Medium-Term Strategic Plan for the period 2012-2017. More than 50 students have already registered on the programme.

They were present at yesterday’s ceremony, with some of them sharing their aspirations to the invitees.

Helinda Magnan, Staniella Henriette and Rynia Tamboo from Site said they have been inspired by other teachers, that they love to work with children and they want to share what they have themselves learned with them.

The three young girls have however warned that a teacher is not made, but rather one is born to become one.

“It comes from within yourself,” they said.