Institute of Early Childhood Development hosts first open Day |20 August 2014

To commemorate its fifteen months of existence the Institute of Early Childhood Development (IECD) held its first open day yesterday.
The event took place at its head office at the Le chantier Mall.

The theme chosen for the activity was ‘Advocating for early childhood islanders -- The Anchor’, which reflects the National Theme for 2014 – ‘Seychelles a determined island nation’.

The vision of the institute is for ‘Seychellois children to enjoy quality early childhood care and education, through the shared commitment of all partners’. Its mission is to be the leading authority on ECCE (Early Childhood Care and Education) in the country while the work it coordinates is recognised as a model of good practice in ECCE regionally and beyond.

The guest of honour for the opening ceremony was Vice-President Danny Faure along with Education Minister Macsuzy Mondon, Health Minister Mitcy Larue, the ambassador for women and children Dr Erna Athanasius and the principal secretary in the Vice-President’s Office Jeanne Simeon.

Also present at the ceremony were members of the high level ECCE policy committee, staff of IECD, representatives from the Ministry of Environment and Energy, among other distinguished guests.

In her opening address, the chief executive of IECD, Shirley Choppy, gave details of some of its achievements.

“Today is exactly 15 months since the establishment of our institution at this location. IECD continues its journey into its second year with several accomplishments to its credit,” she said.

“Apart from the ongoing projects and events, we successfully implemented an ambitious nationwide study on child minding services in collaboration with a team of consultants. Emanating from the study are: development of levels of provision of framework and wide sensitisation of child minders and partners,” she noted.

She also informed the guests of a new project to develop national standards for child minding services. This project is being funded by the World Bank.

“IECD is also playing an active coordinating and facilitating role so as to improve the quality of services provided by the child minders,” she remarked.

The open day also saw the launch of two new projects -- a documentation facility for ECCE and the children’s aspirations booklet.

The documentation facility, which was officially opened by Vice-President Faure, has become a reality since it is in line with one of IECD’s mandates, said Mrs Choppy during an interview with the press.

“One of our mandates is to promote and to prepare advocacy campaigns on the importance of early childhood. We are here to educate the population and the professionals on the best practices which exist,” she explained.
 
“Together with our partner in Singapore, the SEED institute, we have brought over a hundred books to keep in our facility. Also the Minister of Education has donated a set of books to boost the facility’s existing materials,” she added.

During the ceremony, MinisterMondon presented the set of books to Mrs Choppy.

For now, it will not be possible to borrow books from the centre since there are limited copies. However one will be able to make photocopies and also make use of the internet facilities found in the documentation facility.

Mrs Choppy also told the guests of their plan to expand the documentation centre in the future.

“We envisage that this facility will eventually become a ‘one-stop’ hub for documentation and a repository of information and data on ECCE.”

When addressing the guests, the officer responsible for the project, Jessica D’Unienville, said that “it is our hope that this documentation facility will help spread the message on the importance of Early Childhood Care and Education that IECD continues to advocate.”

“Our initial targeted audiences for this facility are the ECCE front liners, namely; professional practitioners who include teachers, nurses, social and community development workers along with care-givers and service providers. We will also be encouraging prospective students aspiring to specialise in early childhood care and education, parents, researchers, journalists and members of the general public to make use of this resource,” Mrs D’Unienville pointed out.

As for the second project, which is the children’s aspirations booklet, a competition was launched in March 2014, entitled ‘Early Childhood Islanders Aspiration 2020+: letter to the president’.

The competition was open to children in Crèche Year two and for children in the first and second years in state and private primary schools. The participants had to express their thoughts and feelings through a range of materials with the help of teachers, educators and parents.

A total of three hundred and forty-nine entries were received but after three rounds of selections by a panel of judges who consisted of an artist, a writer and a teacher, twelve finalists were selected from each category. Prizes were awarded to the first three children in each category.

Felicia Lafortune, the officer coordinating this project, said in her address that IECD has taken the initiative to document and publish the children’s aspirations. “After the judging process, it has taken us two months to put the booklet together,” she said.

The booklet is entitled ‘Seychelles, A determined Island Nation: The aspirations of early childhood children’.

Speaking to the press, Mrs Lafortune said they want the booklet to be brought internationally as well so they have used the handwritten versions of what the children had written in Creole and alongside they have published translation of the texts English.

“We hope that President James Michel brings copies of the booklet along with him to Samoa if it is possible,” she said.

Copies of the booklet were presented to key partners. Vice-President Faure accepted a copy of the booklet on behalf of President Michel. Minister Mondon, Minister Larue, Ambassador Athanasius, PS Simeon and Jeannette Larue, a representative from the Ministry of Environment and Energy all received a copy of the booklet from Mrs Choppy.

Copies of the booklet will also be available for sale at the different schools.

Two of the winners from two different categories were present and gave a summary of their work. They are Andrea Matombé from Baie Lazare crèche and Christie Sedgwick from Primary 2 of Takamaka school.

The works of the twelve finalists from each category were also on display the whole day for viewing by the guests and the public in the lobby of the IECD head office.

The accompanying photographs show highlights of the open day yesterday.