Teachers march in solidarity with assaulted colleague |09 November 2017

A horde of teachers took to the streets yesterday in a march of solidarity with a teacher from Mont Fleuri secondary school who was allegedly assaulted by relatives of a student the day before.

The relatively peaceful march began at the Mont Fleuri secondary and finished with a gathering and protestation in front of the State House gates.

Teachers from different schools on Mahé waved banners with slogans such as ‘Enough is enough’ and were calling out for an audience with Vice-President Vincent Meriton.

They were joined by the member of the National Assembly for Mont Fleuri, Jean-François Ferrari, and the president of the Seychelles Labour Union (SLU), Alain St Ange.

Bernice Constance, one of the group’s spokesperson, said her colleagues and other interested parties were primarily marching to see that justice is served given that the assailants, at that point in time, were still at large.

“Our first demand is that the suspects are at the very least picked up by the police and questioned,” Ms Bernice provided.

The campaigners were also demanding for stringent policies and actions that would effectively deal with the disciplinary problems that all the teachers present said are a constant in most public schools in the country.

“We feel that the authorities concerned are not doing enough to make sure these incidents do not occur again,” Ms Bernice added.

“If our demands are not heard most of the teachers will not teach for these next two days,” she asserted.

In a bid to appease and listen to these teachers who had barricaded themselves in front of the State House and had blocked the entrance, Vice-President Meriton agreed to meet them at the International Conference Centre of Seychelles (ICCS).

Flanking Mr Meriton on his left side during the meeting was the Minister for Education and Human Resource Development, Joel Morgan, and on his right the chief superintendent and head of the Criminal Investigation Division (CID), François Freminot.

The meeting with Vice-President Meriton at the ICCS

Superintendent Freminot stated that the police have to follow procedures and carry out its investigations before undertaking any arrest.

He further added that, at that time, the victim and witnesses of the incident had still not come forward to give an official statement, and appealed to them to do so at the earliest.

“What I can guarantee you is that, if not by the course of this week, then by the beginning of next week we will file a charge and bring the case before court, depending on the situation of the case. We need to gather evidence.”

While addressing those in attendance the vice-president said there is no lack of will from his government but also reinforced that teachers, students, parents and other stakeholders in the community should come together to help bring about changes in school and create a “win-win formula” for all.

He noted that parents will soon have to sign a contract with the school and community, committing themselves to the behaviour management of their children and construction of a fortified relationship between home and school.

On his side Minister Morgan reassured teachers that amendments to the Education Act as well as revision of the school’s code of conduct will be top priorities for his ministry.

He stated that the centre for children with anti-social and behavioural issues will now be located at Cap Ternay instead of Grand Anse Mahé and the capital for this project has already been bracketed in the 2018 budget.

Minister Morgan explained that because it will take almost 18 months to build the centre, immediate action should be taken with children whose behaviour is not to the required level, and added that his ministry spends more than R32 million annually to pay security firms which are unable to respond when they have to.

Reinforcing the autonomy of head teachers and school management, risk allowance for teachers, security of teachers, illicit drug trafficking on school premises, resolution of differences between schools and the ministry’s headquarters, insurance cover for teachers and the efficacy of certain policies were some of the subjects also discussed during the meeting.

As the meeting ended, Seychelles NATION approached Ms Bernice once more to seek out her reaction: “We have to give them the time and space to take action and we are confident that they will do so. Hence as of tomorrow (today) it will be business as usual at all the schools.”

In addition to the march in Victoria, teachers at Anse Boileau and Pointe Larue secondary schools also carried out their own protests in solidarity with Kevin Monthy, the teacher who had been assaulted.

Meanwhile, the parent who was allegedly involved in the assault on Mr Monthy has provided her own version of the incident.

According to her, she rushed to the school when she heard that her younger son Andrio was being beaten by a teacher, namely the assault victim.

“While we were in the car I noticed that the right side of his face was swollen and he was crying,” she told Tele Sesel.

She said that she is unaware of how the teacher received his injuries and insisted that she or her relatives are not responsible for any act of aggression towards him.