SCAA answers education ministry’s call to power wash Nisti headquarters |16 September 2019

Education is a shared responsibility, Education and Human Resource Development Minister Jeanne Simeon re-iterated to the media on Friday, after parents had visited Belonie secondary school and the National Institute of Science, Technology and Innovation building, where La Rosière and Belonie students will be relocated.

In fact, Belonie secondary students will start the third term of school today at the National Institute of Science, Technology and Innovation (Nisti) building at Bel Ombre in a cleaner environment than what their parents witnessed during Friday’s visit.

The shared responsibility was in action yesterday when four fire fighters and a mechanic from the airport fire service power washed the area to remove dust to make it more conducive for the students to start school, knowing that they have already lost one week of studies as their first day of school was postponed from September 9 to September 16, 2019.

Bernard Henriette, chief fire officer of the Airport Fire Service, told Seychelles NATION yesterday that the Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) decided to lend a helping hand following all the complaints aired by parents on Friday after the last visit to the premises.

“Our CEO (Garry Albert) instructed that a team from the airport fire service who were off duty help out with the cleaning. We brought the runway sweeper to Nisti at Bel Ombre to do the cleaning. We started at 11am and work should be over by 5pm,” Mr Henriette told Seychelles NATION.

The building contractor, A&H Builders, also worked overtime to complete the project within three weeks.

All 312 secondary students of S1, S4 and S5 from Belonie secondary school will continue with their learning at Nisti today, while P1, P2, P5 and P6 pupils from La Rosière primary school will be moving to Belonie secondary.

The move follows the decision by the Ministry of Education Human Resource Development earlier in August to close the La Rosière school due to structural defects and to relocate students and staff to the Belonie secondary school. Nisti was chosen by the ministry as the ideal place to relocate Belonie secondary students and staff.

The P3 and P4 pupils from La Rosière primary are attending the Mont Fleuri primary school while the S2 students from Belonie secondary are attending the English River secondary school while S3 students have been relocated to Perseverance secondary school.

The accompanying photos show some of the cleaning work done at the Nisti site.