(Seychelles News Agency) - 20 secondary school teachers from Seychelles will be going to Botswana in December to pursue their Bachelor’s degree in education whilst another 20 teachers from Botswana will fill the shortage of teachers in various schools around the Indian Ocean islands.

This announcement came after the Minister of Education and Skills Development of Botswana, Unity Dow and Seychelles education minister MacSuzy Mondon signed a memorandum of understanding yesterday that sets condition for the exchange programme in education training.

“We are really very glad that the two countries have been able to respond to this mutual call to collaborate in this area, so today’s discussion was to really reaffirm and confirm the importance of training of teachers from both countries,” said Dow.

Seychelles and Botswana have agreed with the signing of the MOU that the exchange programme in teacher training is a long term project. The idea is to train maximum Seychellois teachers over time, and as that is being done, fewer and fewer teachers will be needed from Botswana to be placed in Seychelles.

All 20 Seychellois teachers embarking on the 2 to 3 year program at the prestigious University of Botswana situated in the heart of the Gaborone capital, will be upgrading from a local diploma in secondary teaching to a Bachelor Degree in Education. They will be studying in the domains of social sciences and mathematics.

Dow also said that the 20 experienced teachers coming from Botswana to teach in the Seychelles will also benefit by learning of the French language, since Seychelles is a trilingual nation, with French is one its three national languages, next to English and Creole.

During her short visit Dow also visited the Seychelles Tourism Academy in the eastern region of La Misere on the main island of Mahe. The academy trains students to occupy various positions in the hospitality and tourism industry and is also a educational centre of the Shannon College of Hotel Management in Ireland.

The delegation from Botswana is targeting the Seychelles tourism industry as a potential area for future cooperation. Dow was on her first official visit in the tropical islands of Seychelles situated in the western Indian Ocean.

The education agreement was initiated in a meeting with Vice President Danny Faure at the 35^th annual summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) held on the 17th and 18th of August in Gaborone, Botswana.

Minister Dow greeting Vice President Faure ( Joena Bonelame, Seychelles News Agency) Photo License: CC-BY

The meeting between Dow and Vice President Faure proposed an exchange programme between the two countries to secure placement for a backlog of Seychellois teachers to complete their advance studies in various teaching field and at the same time ensuring that there are enough teachers to fulfill the human resource requirements. 

  
Seychelles and Botswana have had close cooperation in the education sector in recent years. A number of Seychellois  students have in the past undertaken training in Botswana, particularly in the field of librarianship.
 
There are currently 20 Seychellois already following first degree courses in the Botswana University in the area of English language, mathematics, sciences and social sciences.

  
Seychelles, an island nation of 90,000 inhabitants, has many foreign teachers working in the state schools of the country as well as in the private sector, among which many come from Sri Lanka, India and Kenya.