Thorough review of education sector continues |22 April 2013

A team of foreign and local experts has just concluded the third Mission under the cooperation agreement between the Ministry of Education, the European Union and the International Institute of Education Planning (IIEP) of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

This follows a five-day intensive working sessions held at the ministry’s headquarters from April 15 to 19 under the guidance of international consultants Dr Khadim Sylla of Unesco and Dorian Gay.
The cooperation programme and mission have been made possible through financial support from the European Union and technical assistance from IIEP for the formulation of a medium term strategic plan 2013-2017 (MTS) for the ministry.

The main aim of the third mission was to conduct a review of the education sector through a situation analysis identifying the various policy orientations and strategies to further consolidate work done during the February and March 2013 missions.

The cooperation programme with the EU and IIEP is not only assisting the ministry with the formulation of the MTS plan but also in terms of capacity building of the local technical team and further development of the Education Management Information System (EMIS) which are major components in the strategic planning process.

The plan comes as follow up to the education reform which is nearing full implementation phase hence the need to evaluate and strategise in order to ensure more effective policies for the coming five years.

It is expected to be completed by July 2013.
The Ministry of Education is also one of the ministries where the Programme Performance Based Budgeting (PPBB) is being piloted.  For this, a group of World Bank representatives were in Seychelles doing a public expenditure review exercise. They also held various sessions with senior education officials to take stock of financial management in the education sector.
 
The ministry said doing the two exercises at the same time has proved highly beneficial for the ministry in that the World Bank review gives the ministry the financial perspective of education, and at the same time complements various elements of the IIEP sessions to help compile the cost dimensions of the MTS plan 2013-2017.

So far 25 people have been trained in the process of developing the MTS plan, a step which principal secretary for education Merida Delcy said will help Seychelles run such future exercise with local teams.