As part of its ongoing support to the Teachers Council of Seychelles, the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) recently facilitated a three-day training session on implementing and managing Open and Distance Learning (ODL) programmes for teachers. This work comes as part of the second phase of COL’s Beyond Numbers Project, which aims to scale quality teacher development across the Commonwealth by translating policy frameworks into action.  

The session highlighted the practical use of Moodle as a scalable and sustainable digital platform for teacher education and professional development, but also operationalised Seychelles’ National Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programme by demonstrating how its competency areas could be implemented in Moodle environments. COL has also been working with the Teachers Council to integrate ODL into the country’s CPD programmes. 

During the session, Mrs Yasmin Umarji, Chairperson of the Teachers Council, reinforced the human-centred focus of the Beyond Numbers initiative and highlighted Seychelles’ transition from conceptual design to practical implementation in digital teacher development.  

“Beyond Numbers is not about statistics. It is about people; teachers whose professionalism and adaptability shape our nation’s learning outcomes,” she said.  

Highlighting national progress, Mr John Lesperance, the Principal Secretary at the Ministry of Education in Seychelles, reaffirmed the need for institutions to embrace innovation in reforming ICT and ODL in the country.  He described the initiative as a turning point for institutionalisation, “Phase 2 is our transition from framework design to national implementation, ensuring continuous, technology-supported, and inclusive learning for every teacher.” 

The session brought together 71 practising teachers and stakeholders, including representatives from the University of Seychelles, the Ministry of Education, the Seychelles Institute of Teacher Education and the Teachers Council. Participants reflected on their teaching approaches and developed practical action plans toward a sustainable and priority-aligned delivery of CPD as they explored the alignment of professional standards with digital tools, digital learning assessment, and Moodle activities in a multi-institutional setting. 

Dr Evode Mukama, Adviser: Teacher Education at COL underscored the broader significance of the initiative for sustainable development of the teaching profession. “By integrating the National CPD Framework with Moodle Cloud, Seychelles is demonstrating how ODL can become a powerful engine for improving the quality, relevance, and sustainability of teacher professional development.” 

COL looks forward to continuing its work with other Commonwealth Member States to strengthen teacher development through the Beyond Numbers Project.