National Museum of History educational programme |06 May 2022

Domaine Val de Près, Au Cap

Since the beginning of the first week of the current school holidays, the National Museum of History has hosted indoor and outdoor school holiday activities for children, as part of its educational programme.

The activities were being held three times per week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, from 9.30am to2.30pm. A total of 40 students aged between 7 - 16 years were said to have registered for the programme.

As the school holiday activities came to an end this week, the last week of the school holidays, Seychelles NATION spoke to Ms Jeanne Pothin, the assistant museum curator who is responsible for the implementation of the National Museum of History Educational Programme.

She shares that the museum officially launched its first educational activity on August 25, 1991 and that this year, the museum activities for the children consisted of visits to historical sites and monuments, planting of medicinal plants, power point presentations, history talks, workshops, as well as traditional dances and games.

Ms Pothin, who has been working with the National Museum of History Educational Programme for over the past 30 years and who is currently being assisted by Stephanie Sauzier, says that the activities are of educational value for both the children and the public in general.

She continues, saying that some of the benefits of the activities include the participants having the opportunity to develop on new, creative ideas; enhancing the participants’ knowledge on Seychelles history and cultural heritage in school curriculum subjects; and helping the participants to better preserve our cultural heritage for our future generations.

Below are some pictures from the National Museum of History showing some of the participants of the educational programme:

Talking about the procedure for children to join the programme, Ms Pothin explains that any child can join as long as they fall within the said age group.

Parents or guardians have to fill a registration form to give their child permission to participate in the activities as well as a consent form to authorise the media for filming and photographing of their child during the National Museum of History Educational Programme. To note, participants without parental endorsement will be not be accepted for the said activities.

For the future, Ms Pothin says that the National Museum of History will continue to host these school holiday activities for children.

For more information:

-          Telephone: Ms. Pothin 2 822 329 or Ms. Sauzier 2 823 088

-          Email: jpothin@gov.sc

Photo sources: National Museum of History