April 5, 2011 -- At a ceremony attended by President James Michel yesterday at Plaisance primary school, the United Arab Emirates handed over the Sheikh Khalifa Schools IT project to Seychelles.

The dream of access to computer-aided learning for all our primary school children came true on Monday when the United Arab Emirates handed over the Sheikh Khalifa Schools IT project to Seychelles.

At a ceremony attended by President James Michel at the Plaisance primary school, Dr Hassan Yousuf Mohamed Al Awadhi of the UAE signed the agreement to hand over the information technology (IT) project on behalf of the UAE.

Education, Employment and Human Resources Minister Macsuzy Mondon and the vice-chancellor of the University of Seychelles Dr Rolph Payet signed for Seychelles.

President Michel and his delegation - which included ministers, teachers and university lecturers - then saw excited and very interested children using the new equipment in one class, and in another, they saw teacher Daryl Membé in a two-way communication with pupils through the new system.

"Today the dream has come true for the thousands of young Seychellois in our primary schools. It is a promise delivered. Thank you, President Michel," said Dr Payet.

He said the project has been financed by Sheikh Khalifa bin Al Nahyan, President of the UAE and Ruler of Abu Dhabi.

"Through this project every primary school in Seychelles has established state-of-the-art and internationally recognised equipment for learning."

He said it will offer not only IT education, but also be a new medium of learning for other subjects like mathematics, sciences or general knowledge.

He said the learning materials have been prepared by leading training and education institutions around the world and are in use by pupils all over the world.

"This new medium is the cornerstone of the Seychelles Vision 2020," he said, and quoting a boy who - at the Expo 2020 - could hardly believe his school would have the laptops soon.

Mrs Mondon said the handover marked yet another important chapter in the history of education in Seychelles.
 
"On behalf of the children of Seychelles I say thank you to His Highness Sheikh Khalifa," she said, noting the earlier we are able to give our children access to educational opportunities, the more we will develop as a nation.

"In his National Day 2010 address, President Michel announced, I quote 'As a result of an active partnership with a friendly country, we will now be able to speed up the implementation of the programme in all schools.  We will start the programme in primary schools which will receive new information technology facilities and be provided with access to modern and efficient equipment'.

"In less than a year, exactly 10 months later, the vision of the President has turned into reality.  The young children in our primary schools have started to explore the new technologies with much enthusiasm.

"This is a real victory for Seychelles and the Seychellois children.

"The aim of the project - which is in line with one of the priority areas in the Education Reform 2009-2010 - is to provide primary school pupils and teachers with the latest teaching aids and tools to make teaching and learning a more interesting and effective experience.

"Such I believe will enable our country and our youth to further embrace the 21st century ICT skills."

Mrs Mondon said to achieve the goals for the project, new infrastructure had to be put in place through efforts coordinated by the University of Seychelles in partnership with Knowledge Point and her ministry.

Dr Hassan said through the direction of Sheikh Khalifa and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE government with the help of Seychelles government initiated the project to give the equipment to Seychelles.

He said without the close ties between the UAE and Seychelles the project could not have been realised.

Its aim is to give the highest quality of training to students, he said.

Through this project, it is envisioned that a completely new learning environment is now being provided to primary school pupils in Seychelles.

They and their teachers are being given the latest teaching aids and learning tools to make learning more interesting and effective, enabling Seychelles embrace the 21st century information communication skills, he said.