The India-Seychelles Centre for Excellence in IT was opened by Indian High Commissioner Asit Kumar Nag at Mont Fleuri in the presence of President James Michel, ministers and senior officials of the Government of India, which funded the centre.

The university will soon advertise for interested Seychellois to enrol for a wide range of courses due to start in September, leading to certificates, diploma and other qualifications.

Students will need International General Certificate of Education certificates although interested and experienced computer technicians will be considered, said vice-chancellor of the University of Seychelles Dr Rolph Payet, who explained how the centre will run under UniSey.

He said UniSey is fulfilling its other roles for “a university does not only offer degrees but also takes part in research, human resources development and offers from short to long courses which can, for example, help students adapt to the frequent changes computers go through.

The centre has two computer labs each of which can take 24 students. They have technology that allows two-way communication between lecturers and students.

It has a library with 10,000 books on computing.

Four Seychellois lecturers are being trained in India to run the centre and will soon join their Indian counterparts already based at the centre.

The centre will be linked to two others to be set up on Praslin and La Digue at which students will be able to follow lessons given on Mahe, although before the proposed fibre-optic cable is ready, some of their lectures may be pre-recorded.

After touring the facility with the other guests, President Michel said realisation of the project forms part of his vision for the future of Seychelles as presented in the Expo2020.

He said the vision includes such achievements as the launch at the Plaisance primary school on Monday of the programme through which all primary school pupils will have computer laboratories that will help boost their learning skills.

The new centre complements the thrust and takes us further ahead where our technicians particularly the youth can advance their techniques in computing, he said.

Mr Michel noted through his vision to develop the knowledge-based society to help build the economy, the IT projects are of great importance to the future of Seychelles, as Seychellois continue to be empowered to step up their own capacity.
“This shows I’ve leve and debrouye, gone up and down visiting different countries in line with my active diplomacy policy,” he said.

It was his contacts with our friendly nations that have brought so many benefits to Seychelles, Mr Michel and other speakers said.

Apoorva Kohli, who is in charge of India’s International Cooperation for excellent in information communication technology, noted the setting up of the centre was agreed upon when Mr Michel visited India in 2005.

He said feasibility studies done by his country showed Seychelles has the necessary infrastructure and the people here are IT-ready.

The demand for skilled manpower in ICT is increasing in Seychelles but there is not enough skilled manpower hence the need for such a centre was found to exist, he said.

Dr Payet said there are many areas outside software that people need more knowledge in, for example the computers themselves.

“They can also learn website design, how to set up networks, configure computers, work with global information systems and design programmes for example to do with health, housing and education,” he said.

Mr Kumar Nag said the centre will now form another important part of UniSey.

“IT, cyber highway, internet, e-commerce, e-education etc are increasingly becoming an integral part of human activity,” he said.

“Mr President, your far-sighted vision aimed at the objective of human resource development and infrastructure building for Seychelles gave birth to the idea of setting up of this IT Centre. India on its part feels honoured to be of assistance in setting it up.”

UniSey will be running the centre with a tele-education facility provided by India to Seychelles under the Pan-African Satellite communication project, he said.