President Danny Faure met with two high level delegates of the First International Biennial Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), at State House yesterday. The conference, held under the theme "Building Resilient Early Childhood Care and Education Systems: Lessons of Experience", is taking place at Eden Bleu Hotel on Eden Island from the 16th to 18th February 2017.

Present at the meeting was the Deputy Cabinet Secretary in the Office of the President, Mrs Jeanne Simeon, and the Chief Executive Officer of Early Childhood Development, Mrs Shirley Choppy.

The conference was jointly organised by the Government of Seychelles and High Level ECCE Policy Committee, with technical assistance from UNESCO-International Bureau of Education (IBE). During the conference, participants from 18 countries including Seychelles, will be sharing experiences, knowledge and best practices of ECCE.

Director of International Bureau of Education: UNESCO
The President met with the Director of International Bureau of Education-UNESCO, Dr Mmantsetsa Marope. The President reaffirmed the commitment of the government to continue in developing best practices in the Early Childhood Care and Education.

During the meeting, Dr Marope thanked the President for his leadership and involvement in the transformation of Early Childhood Care and Education, not only in Seychelles, but in other parts of the world where he has spoken on the matter.

"Since the World Conference in Moscow in September 2010, Seychelles has honoured its decision, kept its commitment and now, we see the result of our work. But we should not remain in the comfort zone, we need to ensure that we have the proper mechanism to consolidate the work we have done and remain vigilant so that there is no stagnancy," said President Faure during the meeting.

They also spoke about the different progress and achievements of Early Childhood Care and Education in Seychelles since her last visit in 2015 as well as challenges. The President and Dr Marope also discussed having a nominee to represent Seychelles in a global consultation process to be held later this year.

Dr Marope also expressed her gratitude to the President for the contribution that Seychelles voluntarily provided to the International Bureau of Education, the sum of $300,000 (USD), which will be disbursed in annual trenches of a $100,000 (USD) per year. Such donation is to facilitate the work of the IBE.

Chairman of the Council of the International Bureau of Education
President Faure also met with the Chairman of the Council of the International Bureau of Education, Dr Hamood Khalfan Al Harthi.

The President underlined that the visit of Dr Al Harthi to Seychelles and his making the time to visit a small country is a testament to the progress and good work done so far.

"It is an historical day for Seychelles, as for the past years we have worked so hard in creating the necessary policy framework on Early Childhood Care and Education. We have received a lot of support from Dr Marope, both at the technical level and the position that she is now. I have provided the political will to move forward, and by the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between UNESCO-IBE and Seychelles to formally designate Seychelles as a Best Practice Hub for ECCE, it shows how far we can go and achieve together," said President Faure.

Dr Al Harthi commended Seychelles for what it has achieved in education and underscored that Seychelles has done better than much bigger countries in delivering good practices in the sector by starting with the Early Childhood Care.

President Faure also attended the official opening of the conference yesterday evening launched by Vice-President Vincent Meriton, where he witnessed the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between UNESCO-IBE and Seychelles to formally designate Seychelles as a Best Practice Hub for ECCE. The MoU was signed by the Designated Minister and Chairperson of the High level ECCE Policy Committee, Mrs Macsuzy Mondon, and Director of the UNESCO/ International Bureau of Education, Dr Mmantsetsa Marope.