The President of the Republic, Mr Danny Faure received the Vice-Chancellor of University of Botswana, Professor Davis Norris, Vice Chancellor accompanied by University delegation for a courtesy call at State House yesterday afternoon.

President Faure welcomed Professor Norris and his team to Seychelles and thanked him for taking the time to engage with prospective local partners in Seychelles, in line with further promoting greater cooperation between Seychelles and Botswana. He reiterated the country’s commitment at strengthening relations with the University.

“Thank you for making the time to be here and I wish you and your team fruitful discussions during your visit. The Government of Seychelles remains committed and is determined to enhance our relations for the mutual benefit of our two countries” said President Faure.

During the meeting discussions was focussed on the main existing area of cooperation between the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development with the University of Botswana in the field of Teacher training. However, the meeting was also an ideal opportunity to initiate further discussions on possibilities of widening the areas of exchange such as potential specialised training in the field of Medicine for Seychellois doctors. Professor Norris also announced that in view of the outstanding performance of the former Seychellois Student Ms Tania Bellard, who was also Valedictorian and the overall best performer in her batch of Teacher returning graduates last year, will be awarded a full scholarship from the University for the upcoming intake in mid-2020.

Speaking to the press after the meeting, Professor Norris described his discussions with the President as excellent and expressed hope that following this visit the relations is widened into new scopes.

Also present for the meeting was the Principal Secretary for higher education and human resource development Dr Linda Barallon, the Chief Executive Officer for the Agency for National Human Resources Development (ANHRD) Dr. Nadia Lauricourt and Belonie Secondary Teacher Ms Tania Bellard, expected to undertake her Master in Education following the scholarship announcement today.