President commends long-serving librarians |03 June 2022
The five librarians in a souvenir photograph with President Ramkalawan (Photo: Joena Meme)
A group of long-serving librarians from the Ministry of Education, some of whom have retired, yesterday morning were received by President Wavel Ramkalawan at State House.
The ones that have retired are Marie-Ange Moustache (who has worked for 42 years) from Belonie secondary school, Mary Antat (40 years) from Anse Boileau secondary and Marie-Annette Lawen (39 years) from the ministry’s headquarters. Also among the group were two other librarians who will be retiring soon – Geraine Antat (50 years), also from the ministry’s headquarters, and Christina Dogley (42 years) from Beau Vallon secondary school.
The meeting with President Ramkalawan was for the librarians to share with him their successes and challenges encountered during their long career as librarians.
They also discussed with him their schemes of service which they claimed should more or less be similar to that for teachers considering that they too help in educating the children. They stayed on for so long because of their love for the job.
In recognition of their long years of service, the President formally expressed his appreciation to them for their years of hard work and dedication. He commended them for remaining loyal and committed to their profession though they faced many challenges.
“It is an honour to receive you all here today. On behalf of the government I want to express our gratitude for the long years you have dedicated to your career as a librarian. As teachers, you equally play a pivotal role in the lives of students, whereby you create a conducive environment for the students to learn, providing academic knowledge to students through well-kept books and empowering them to become critical thinkers, enthusiastic readers, skillful researchers, and ethical users of information. Congratulations and thank you for your devotion,” said the President.
Speaking to the press after the meeting, Geraine Antat, with 50 years of service as a librarian, said she was very happy to have had the opportunity to meet the President, one of her clients during his days at the Seychelles College, and to share with him her path taken as a librarian.
“I think that librarian is also a noble profession like that of a teacher. It should be given the same attention and support like it is being done for teachers because we also help to groom and educate our children,” Ms Antat said.
Ms Antat, who started off as a teacher before becoming a librarian, urged parents to encourage their children to take a book and read to increase their general knowledge for their own development.
For her part, Ms Dogley who worked for 10 years as a librarian at the Anse Etoile primary school, before moving to the headquarters for the ensuing 32 years, said that she ended up being a librarian because of her love for reading.
“As a small child, I would in the middle of the night light my little torch so that I would be able to read. Like the English say, I was a bookworm. I really loved reading,” said Ms Dogley.
Ms Dogley stated that they were well received by President Ramkalawan and that he has promised he would look into their scheme of service.
“I am happy that we have been able to make him understand the job that we do in the schools, especially in relation to our scheme of service. I think we are not getting a good scheme of service for the job we are doing as compared to that for teachers,” Ms Dogley said.
Absent with apologies yesterday morning was Edwige Joubert who has served as a librarian for 43 years.
Patrick Joubert/Press release from State House
