From 8 to 11 January 2019, the Seychelles Teacher Management Core Team, consisting of Seychelles Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development and Seychelles National Commission for UNESCO, visited IICBA to jointly review their teacher policy development process and discuss next steps. This was a follow-up to the UNESCO mission to Seychelles in March 2018, Seychelles’ scoping mission to IICBA in May 2018 and IICBA’s visit to Seychelles in October 2018, which identified teacher issues as a key strategic area for technical support from IICBA and started collaboration towards development of a teacher development and management policy for Seychelles.

During the working sessions, the Seychelles Core Team presented their progress report on a situational analysis of teacher issues in Seychelles and identified intervention options based on IICBA’s guidelines for nine dimensions of teacher policy. This was followed by IICBA’s comments and inputs on how to structure policy strategic areas, goals and interventions. By the end of the working session, the Seychelles Core Team developed an outline of a policy document and key content, including strategic areas, goals and interventions aimed at (1) improving the status of the teaching profession and teachers’ professionalization, (2) enhancing school governance and teaching and learning, (3) ensuring teachers’ voice and engagement in education policy development and (4) cross-cutting issues, such as Blue Economy, gender equality and ICT among others.

In addition, IICBA also organized meetings with the Ethiopian National Commission for UNESCO, Ministry of Education and Addis Ababa University, College of Education and Behavioral Studies, and visits to historical sites and cultural experiences in Addis Ababa.

It is planned for IICBA to pay a visit to the Seychelles in May 2019 to participate in the consultation workshop for the first draft of the policy document.