Education minister at Unesco general conference |04 December 2013
The Minister for Education, Macsuzy Mondon, headed a delegation at the 37th session of the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) general conference held in Paris, France from November 5 to 20, 2013.
The delegation from the Ministry of Education included Marie-Reine Hoareau, secretary general of the Seychelles National Commission for Unesco and Vicky Gendron, assistant secretary for the commission. Seychelles’ permanent delegate for Unesco, Ambassador Bernard Shamlaye, Renette Nicette, principal counselor at the Seychelles embassy in Paris and consultant Irène Auger also attended the conference.
In her speech Minister Mondon renewed Seychelles’ commitment towards the ideals of Unesco.
She also welcomed the retention of Africa and gender equality as the global priorities for the new medium-term strategy and appreciated the intention to mainstream specific activities for youth, LDCs, (Least developed countries) and Small Island Developing States (Sids) in all Unesco’s major programmes.
Minister Mondon strongly encouraged Unesco to work towards the better delivery of flagship projects of Priority Africa in Africa by finding the necessary resources for their implementation.
She also called for the full operationalisation of all the African field offices and implementation of science and technology activities important for building capacity and a culture of sustainable development.
The Minister for Education expressed the need for support from Unesco in the areas of Technical Vocational and Education Training (TVET) and higher education, teacher development and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in education and also in the areas of youth development, the enhancement of science and technology in education and society, heritage and cultural industries, and media development.
She called on the organisation to ensure that the needs of Sids receive continued and increased attention.
She encouraged Unesco to play a significant role in the preparation of the Third International Conference on Sids to be held in Samoa in 2014 and the implementation of its outcomes in the coming years.
She also expressed concern about the effects of climate change and ocean acidification and called for concerted action in addressing these challenges.
“Small island states are big ocean states. We need to unlock the potential of the oceans that surround us and shape our way of living and our very identity. We support the establishment of a governance structure for the high seas that is fair, that preserves the ecosystem and promotes sustainable development,” the minister stated.
The minister congratulated Unesco IIEP (International Institute of Education Planning) on its fifty years of effective service to education around the world. Over the years, the Ministry of Education has benefitted from IIEP‘s expertise mainly in capacity building in education planning.
Prior to the conference, the minister chaired the Southern and Eastern Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) fifteenth managing committee meeting on Saturday November 2 and took part in the ninth session of SACMEQ Assembly of Ministers on November 3 at Unesco IIEP.
During this general conference Unesco welcomed Anguilla as its associate member.
The 37th session of the general conference was preceded by the Unesco Youth Forum on social inclusion, civic engagement, and dialogue and skills development. Seychelles was represented at the youth forum by Vanessa Ally from the Youth Assembly.