New monument in destination Seychelles

A monument to mark the contribution of the Brothers of Christian Instruction, the Sisters of St. Joseph de Cluny, and local management and staff to education in Seychelles, will be unveiled on June 29.

The recently-formed alumni of past students of the Seychelles College and of the Regina Mundi, the RMSC, is planning to place this monument, as the attached concept design shows, in recognition of the contribution of the Brothers, Sisters, and educators in Seychelles.

Historical Notes:

Regina Mundi: Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cluny
Date of opening: January 27, 1957; Closed 1980
Seychelles College: Plöermel Brothers of Christian Instruction
Date of Opening: January 1950; Closed 1982

These two schools were the initiative of the Director of Education Walter Giles who took on the task of building two schools in the Seychelles in order to improve the level of education in the islands. Because the Catholic church was the historical body responsible for education in the Seychelles after building schools in its various parishes around the islands, the director had to negotiate the construction of these two schools with the then Bishop of Seychelles, Olivier Maradan. The negotiation started in 1945.

The Bishop agreed to the construction of the schools as long as they were run by Catholic Christian brothers and sisters. The Director, Mr. Giles, consequently approached the Brothers of Christian Instruction in Quebec Canada and the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cluny in Ireland to run the schools, but using the English language as the base and not the French language, as was the case in the past.

After several years of to-ing and fro-ing, the Seychelles College was finally opened in 1949, and the Brothers took control in 1950.

After another 6 years of negotiating with the Bishop Maradan, the Regina Mundi was finally constructed and opened its doors in 1957.

These two schools helped to educate several hundreds of Seychellois including ex-Presidents James Mancham and France Albert Rene, as well as the first Seychellois Bishop, Felix Paul.

The two schools also through the years employed several lay teachers from the United Kingdom and also several Seychellois. Mr. Zotique Pragassen became the first Seychellois Headmaster of Seychelles College in 1976.

Unfortunately, the schools were closed down in the early ‘80s – Regina Mundi in 1980 and Seychelles College in 1982.

Many of the teachers, doctors, engineers, and architects in Seychelles were all products of these two great schools.

In 2010, after a get-together at Le Meridien Barbarons, the Regina Mundi Seychelles College Alumni was formed. This organization consists of ex-students of the two schools, and a project was started to build a monument to the two schools at the entrance to Seychelles College.

The monument is under construction and has been designed, built, and funded by ex-students of the school.

The unveiling of the monument has been set for June 29, 2016 at 10:00 am. All ex-students, ex-teachers, and anyone involved in the running of these schools, are cordially invited to this event.

Seychelles is a founding member of the International Coalition of Tourism Partners (ICTP) .