‘One year into Covid-19: Prioritising education recovery to avoid a generational catastrophe’ Taking stock of education amid Covid-19 By Marie-Anne Lepathy |30 March 2021
Minister Valentin flanked by Ms Gendron-Michel and PS Barallon during the virtual meeting yesterday (Photo: Thomas Meriton)
Education ministers from around the world, including Seychelles, yesterday afternoon took part in a high level virtual Unesco meeting to share their experiences, take stock of lessons learnt, discuss the greatest risks facing education today and strategies being used to ensure no learners are being left behind one year into the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Unesco convened the high-level meeting from its headquarters in Paris in line with its mission to facilitate policy dialogue and knowledge sharing by providing a space for ministers and other decision and high policy-makers to discuss and examine some of the most pressing current challenges.
The meeting was held under the theme ‘One year into Covid-19: Prioritising education recovery to avoid a generational catastrophe’.
Seychelles’ Minister for Education, Dr Justin Valentin, together with the principal secretary for Tertiary Education and Human Resource Development Linda Barallon took part in the meeting.
The meeting also included three high-level round table discussions which focused on the following topics that have emerged as major concerns in all countries:
- Keeping schools open, prioritising and supporting teachers
- School and university drop-outs and learning loss
- Digital transformation and the future of education.
In his intervention Dr Valentin focused on the digital transformation and the future of education.
“As a small island State , Seychelles has not been spared during the pandemic and for me in particular, I took office in the midst of the pandemic therefore I am placing great importance in finding the best solutions for the learners of Seychelles,” Dr Valentin said in his opening remarks.
“One year into the pandemic the Ministry of Education had to adopt innovative ways to ensure the continuity of learning by harnessing the potential of technology and other appropriate approaches for distribution of learning contents to students,” he added.
He continued by explaining that one of the three pillars that he wants to focus on is the digital transformation of education.
“As we move into the 21st century it is imperative for our teachers and learners to embrace e-learning and m-learning,” said Dr Valentin.
He went on to detail how the schools have been engaged in online learning and most educational institutions were using different social media platforms to send lessons and receive feedback from learners. Some institutions were using platforms like Microsoft, teams and Zoom to conduct lessons live for their students…others were using Google classrooms, Whatsapp including Seychelles own developed Apps…
The secretary general of Seychelles National Commission for Unesco, Vicky Gendron-Michel, said it is important for the Minister of Education to take part in such a high-level meeting because it is an opportunity for him to share the good and bad experiences and challenges of delivering education programmes in Seychelles during the Covid-19 pandemic when schools across the country remained closed for weeks. It was an opportunity for him to share how Seychelles is using technology to ensure teaching and learning continue in spite of schools being closed.
Minister Valentin was also able to learn of the experiences, best practices and challenges of different other Commonwealth States.
“All Commonwealth States are each facing different situations; some, like Seychelles, have already opened their schools while following all the strict measures put in place by the department of health while others are yet to let children go out to school physically. All the ministers share their situation and all learn from each other’s experiences and share their solidarity while at the same time express and reiterate their commitment to ensure delivering education programmes remain their priority in spite of the challenges resulting from the pandemic to ensure the young generation do not lose out on their education,” Ms Gendron-Michel pointed out.