SIAH teachers trained to run IGCSE agriculture programme |23 September 2023

By Vidya Gappy

Teachers from the Seychelles Institute of Agriculture and Horticulture (SIAH) have been trained to ensure that they have enough skills set to impart and assess a newly introduced course at IGCSE level.

The training was facilitated by a representative from the University of Cambridge, Timothy Venner, at the Anse Boileau Research Centre.

SIAH has been in existence for the last 40 years and unfortunately not many students have been able to pursue their studies at degree level. The IGCSE in General Agriculture is an essential academic bridge for SIAH which will provide another pathway for SIAH graduates to ensure that they are better equipped to access the diploma in Sustainable Agriculture for further studies if they choose to do so.

After the completion of the training, the director of SIAH, Maryanne Marie, shared that it was of utmost importance for the teachers of SIAH to go through such a training and at school level they already diagnosed what was lacking.

“In the past many students who joined SIAH did not want to be here and we were getting some passive students. There were no big motivation. We decided to change the fate of our school. SIAH has now embarked on the IGCSE Agriculture programme and we need to know how to conduct the classes in theory and practice and also how to assess the students. Our students need more qualifications and we need to push them towards that. With an advanced diploma and an IGCSE certificate they can pursue their studies to diploma level, then move forward to get a degree in agriculture. In Seychelles there are way too many vacancies in this field and we do not have enough people with diploma or degrees. We want to change the image of SIAH and make it a proper agricultural school.”

Although SIAH has been renovating some of its building, still the farm is not at the required level. Mrs Marie shared with us that “even the facilitator recognised that lack but he was still very impressed with the effort our school is doing. We do have an animal farm and a vegetable farm and now SIAH is constructing a proper lab for the students. The goal for SIAH is to push for Seychellois to study more,” concluded Mrs Marie.

The accompanying photos show some highlights of the training.

Photos: Contributed