Parents-Educators Council meeting-Activities for fifth year celebration launched |23 May 2005

In its second meeting organised for this year, the Council which is made up of chairpersons of the Parents Teachers Associations (PTAs) met at the National Institute of Education (NIE) on Saturday May 21. The meeting was chaired by the chairman of PEC who is also the Minister of Education and Youth, Danny Faure.

The secretary of PEC, Christian Cafrine, said this year activities organised will be special as the national theme "Our Children, Our Treasures, Our Future," will be put in perspective. 

In addition to a week-long sensitisation campaign about the Council's achievements, the highlight of activities will include various awards presentations, namely the Rita Sinon Award for Outstanding Performance in recognition of work done by the PTAs and long-serving awards for PTA chairpersons. Fairs and exhibitions, the publication of a commemorative newsletter and the draw of a special raffle are also being planned. PEC Week is organised every two years.

Besides discussing plans for PEC Week, the participants were during Saturday's meeting told that they have a daunting task ahead of them to mobilise all PTA members in various districts and move to the front-line in assisting the authority in its battle to protect the country's children against drug and substance abuse.

This came out strongly in a talk on drug and alcohol situation in Seychelles, delivered by the director of Drugs and Alcohol Council (DAC) Benjamin Vel jointly with the principal secretary of Social Affairs Marie-Antoinette Alexis.

The talks highlighted on the usage and types of drugs among young people, schools being affected, statistics of cases of possession, trafficking, cultivation, use and import of various drugs, weaknesses in the law, the effects and side-effects of drugs,  like cannabis, drug use by gender, trafficking pattern among others.

Parents were told that they should be on the look out and warn their children against heroin (which comes in the form of a white powder) identified as the current most dangerous and expensive drug on the market and to also advise their teenagers going to discotheques to keep an eye on their drinks, for fear they can be drugged with Rohypnol, normally associated with gang-rapes overseas. 

Police patrol and drug tests in schools as well as fencing were some of the measures, Mr Vel said, DAC was trying to push forward to protect children at school.

When talking about alcohol abuse,  Mr Vel focused on the making and consumption of baka and lapire, pointing out that the majority of people involved in this business are in retirement and that they were making an earning of around R25,000 monthly. It was pointed out that in a six month period some 233,000 litres of alcohol are imported into the country and this was considered to be very high.

Mr Cafrine said it is important to get Council's support so that parents and teachers can start activating the prevention programme not only at home but spread the message with other parents in the community.

A report about various projects carried out by the ministry to improve schools and their costs were presented by Yves Choppy, the director of Project Planning and Implementation, during the meeting. Mr Choppy also talked about the ministry's plans to repair and maintain a number of schools for the next three years.