The delegation from Seychelles headed by Hon. Waven William continued their active participation in the meetings and 144th General Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) on Monday 21st March 2022.
For the start of the General Debate Hon. Vidot and Ms. Didon, was in attendance without Hon. William as he was engaged in a meeting of the Standing Committee on Sustainable Development of which he is the Vice President. At the Sustainable Development meeting, Hon. William in his intervention on the report entitled: ‘Leveraging Information and Communication Technology as an enabler for the education sector, including in times of pandemic’ gave a brief report on Seychelles’ educational situation and the impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the sector. He highlighted the different actions that Seychelles would have to take which included, strategy to modernise the education system and making the Ministry of Education a technology-enabled institution.
It was recognised that to achieve this, a multi-sectoral involvement will be needed as well as prioritising the training of teachers on ICT moving forwards. Hon. William strongly urged that ICT should be an enabler in Education, not just now but beyond the pandemic for generations to come.
The plenary debated on two propositions on the Ukraine war presented by Indonesia and New Zealand. Hon. Vidot was active in her participation and did three interventions. She began her update by stating that “Regrettably only three members of parliament are below the age of 35 years old even though Seychelles Parliament have 37.14% MPs below 45 years old. However, the secretariat of the National Assembly of Seychelles has a strong work force of young people which we are very proud of.” Hon. Vidot went on to further note that the Committees of the Assembly, notably the Media, Youth and Culture committee and the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus are engaged and have plans to continue looking at the interest of the youths nationally especially for their wellbeing and the youth’s involvement in politics. Following from this, she began by recounting the country’s success in banning plastics, Styrofoam and balloons in a campaign that started since 2017 due to an active engagement of youth led NGO’s.
She also informed the forum of the sustainable and exemplary actions taken by the Secretariat of National Assembly of Seychelles through its creation of the Environment Policy Implementation Committee (EPIC) which greatly involves both Members and staff to engage in the best green practices. EPIC, boasting an active participation of youth has most recently planned for the successful adoption of the wetland area around the National Assembly.
As a young Member of Parliament, Hon. Vidot concluded her intervention in the forum by providing her perspective on the topic of ‘Leveraging Information and Communication Technology as an enabler for the education sector, including in times of pandemic’. She gave much focus to the challenges faced by parents and teachers from the onset of the pandemic and of coping with long distance learning. A lack of resources was amongst the most striking immediate challenges. She noted that there should be a move from traditional learning in the country especially as youths are already more adept at technology.
