(Seychelles News Agency) - A group of teachers from Botswana are expected to come to the Seychelles by December this year, to fill the shortage of teachers in the various schools of the island ocean island nation.
 
According to a press statement from State House, this agreement follows a meeting between the Vice President of Seychelles, Danny Faure, with the Minister of Education and Skills Development of Botswana, Unity Dow.
 
This meeting took place on the sidelines of SADC’s 35th annual summit held on the 17th and 18th of August in Gaborone, Botswana, where Vice President Faure was representing President James Michel.
 
According to the statement, "this meeting was held to propose an exchange program with the Botswana authorities in order to secure placement for a backlog of Seychellois teachers currently awaiting to complete their advance studies in various fields of teaching…..without compromising the number of teachers available to fulfill the human resource requirements in the immediate."

Vice President Danny Faure of the Seychelles initiated a sideline meeting with the Minister of Education and skills development of Botswana, Unity Dow ( State House) Photo License: CC-BY

Vice President Faure proposed an exchange programme for the placement of Seychellois students at the University of Botswana, and in return the Seychelles would be willing to consider employing teachers from Botswana. Both countries use English as a language of teaching.

This would also help to fill the immediate gap of the trainee teachers who will be sent abroad.
 
The Botswana authorities have on their part welcomed the proposal while stressing on the fact that the university has the capacity to absorb additional students from Seychelles.

They further added that they have currently a surplus of qualified teachers who can benefit from the recruitment programme and therefore allow both parties to benefit from the agreement.
 
Seychelles and Botswana have had close cooperation in the education sector in recent years. A number of Seychellois  students have in the past undertaken training in Botswana, particularly in the field of librarianship.
 
"Currently, there are 20 Seychellois already following first degree courses in the Botswana University in the area of English language, mathematics, sciences and social sciences," reads the press statement.
 
The agreement on the exchange progamme still needs to be formalised with the signature of a memorandum of understanding in the coming months.

The first cohort of Botswana teachers expected to arrive in the Seychelles by mid December 2015, and the group of Seychellois teachers are expected to start their studies in Botswana in January 2016.
 
Seychelles, an island nation of 90,000 inhabitants, has many foreign teachers working in the state schools of the country as well as in the private sector, among which many come from Sri Lanka, India and Kenya.