Seychelles has been chosen as one out of nine countries charged with the responsibility to develop a code of conduct to be followed by other nations wishing to recruit teachers from Commonwealth countries.

Education Ministers from the 54 countries of the Commonwealth included Seychelles in a working group of senior officials formed to draw up the code, which is meant to curb "disruptive poaching of teachers."

Education Minister Danny Faure said this Wednesday November 13 when briefing Seychelles Nation on what transpired during the 15th Conference of Commonwealth Education which took place in Edinburgh, Scotland between October 27 and 30.

"Seychelles follows the necessary procedures when recruiting teachers from other countries and this must be one of the criteria the ministers used when choosing Seychelles among the nine countries," Minister Faure said, adding that the working group is expected to conclude its findings by September 2004.

It will be chaired by the deputy secretary general of the Commonwealth, Mr Winston Cox, and is expected to present its preliminary findings by April 2004.

The issue of "unregulated poaching" of teachers was hotly debated by education ministers from small Commonwealth states during a meeting held here in March this year. The ministers said that some small countries like Jamaica had lost up to 500 teachers to developed countries who lured the teachers with better pay.

"South Africa has lost 4,700 teachers," Minister Faure said.

He also said that ministers at the Edinburgh conference agreed on the setting up of a virtual university which he said would require $20 million.

"The secretary general of the Commonwealth, Mr Don Mackinon, has been asked to lead a fund raising drive," Minister Faure said, adding that the money would be required at the rate of $4 million over a period of five years.

Seychelles School Improvement Programme (SIP) also attracted the attention of the delegates after the minister and his principal secretary, Mrs Macsuzie Mondon, who accompanied him to the conference, made presentations on SIP.

He said several ministers and other officials present became interested and wanted to learn more from the Seychelles experience.

"The Commonwealth countries have earmarked Seychelles as a model of SIP," the minister said, explaining that they found Seychelles' programme to be particularly good because the programmes are designed by the schools themselves and have an external quality assurance aspect.

"They are now asking the Commonwealth to finance their visits to Seychelles so that they may come and witness how we carry out the programme," the minister said.

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