Teacher training boost |26 April 2005

Replacing O' levels and National Exams at S5 level, the IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) examinations are being provided by the Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) board, of which six members arrived in Seychelles on Saturday.

Gathered together at the National Institute of Education (NIE) the teachers will be given four days of guidance on teaching the new courses, which were described as being of greater relevance and more widely recognised, than the O' levels and National Exams.

Opening the workshop the principal secretary for Education, Macsuzy Mondon, called the IGCSE, "more relevant, more interesting and more connected to real life situations," before highlighting its internationally accepted standing.

She was backed by the head of the training delegation, Janet Leader, who said that the CIE IGCSE is taught in some 6,500 schools in over 165 countries.

Head of the CIE mathematics programme, Ms Leader stressed the role of the course in reaching out to students.

"(IGCSE) gives students the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and ability," she said, adding that the course is more inclusive and allows more students to have a "positive exam outcome."

But as the reach of the qualification has gone up so has the price. Ms Leader confirmed that the IGCSE programme is more expensive than the O' level course and the Ministry of Education and Youth's (MEY) Assessment, Testing and Accreditation director, Egbert Benstrong, said that R1.5 million has been earmarked for this year's exam costs.

In addition the ministry has spent around R180,000 on the trainer's fees and another R20,000 to run the workshop.

Mr Benstrong said that the workshop would help standardise teaching of the courses and enable the teachers to find out what the examiners will be looking for.
French, taught under the DELF (Diplôme d'études de langue française) system, is now the only subject not covered by the IGCSE.

This year's students are the first to follow the IGCSE course and will sit examinations starting in October.

The connection between the MEY and the CIE, however, predates the adoption of the IGCSE, with the Cambridge board having been involved in the local O' level programme for over ten years.

PS Mondon said that a simplified assessment structure provided by the IGCSE would allow for an increase in teaching time.

"Quality education can only be achieved by quality teaching," said PS Mondon, before the teachers were split into their various subject groups for the start of the four-day intensive programme.