Appendix

The Case Of Seychelles
A. Context
B. Factors

The Case Of Seychelles

(based on fieldwork conducted May - June 1996 by N K Cammish)

A. Context

a. General

The Republic of Seychelles is an archipelago, situated in the Indian Ocean about 1000 miles east of Mombasa. The islands lie between 4° - 5° south of the Equator, outside the monsoon belt, with temperatures ranging between 70° - 80° F. and with an average rainfall of 92" per annum. The central group of about 40 islands is granitic and the 50 outlying islands are coralline. Only four islands (Maine, Praslin, La Digue & Silhouette) have a population of any size and permanence.

Seychelles gained its independence from Britain in June 1976. Settled first by the French in the late 18th century, it retained many aspects of French custom, law and culture during the period of British rule from 1814 onwards, not the least of which were the French language and a French-based creole spoken originally by the slaves brought from Mauritius & Reunion to work on the first plantations. The official languages are now Creole, English and French. The population, estimated at 75,305 in 1996, is 90% Roman Catholic and 8% Anglican, and is mainly descended from the original French settlers and their slaves with the addition of East Africans freed from slave-ships in the Indian Ocean after Abolition. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries there was a small influx of Indian and Chinese traders whose descendants constitute about 1% of the population. Since 1911 there has been no census of racial origins since extensive miscegenation has rendered such a task impossible even were it desirable.

Despite limited resources with income coming mainly from tourism and fisheries, Seychelles has seen rapid development since Independence in housing provision and in access to electricity and treated water supplies (84% and 73% respectively, 1994 Census). Infant mortality has fallen to 8.8 infant deaths per thousand live births and life expectancy is 66 for men and 75 for women. 36% of the population are under 15 or over 65 years of age. Women constitute 51 % of the total population and 44% of heads of households.

b. Education

Table 1 depicts the present system of education in Seychelles. The strong tradition of education for girls is reflected in the 1987 census figures for literacy (Table 2). The domination of the teaching profession by women is illustrated in Table 3.

Sex stereotyping in the choice of courses in the National Youth Service year can be seen in Table 4 and in the choice of 'A' level subjects at the Polytechnic in Table 5.

Table 1: The education system in Seychelles

Table 2: Population aged 12+ by literacy & sex, (Census 1987)

Literacy	Sex
	Females	%	Males	%	Total	%
Not stated	170	1	268	1	438	1
Not approp.	4	0	1	0	5	0
No	3,363	13	3,836	16	7,179	14
Yes	21,770	86	20,691	83	42,461	85
Total	25.287	100	24,786		50,083	100

(Govt. of Seychelles, 1987 Census Report, Victoria, 1991, p. 97)

Table 3: Number of teachers by gender and nationality

	Local			Expatriate			Total	Total	Total
	F	M	Total	F	M	Total	F	M	F/M
Crèche	175	0	175	0	0	0	175	0	175
Primary	494	67	561	0	1	1	494	68	562
Secondary	202	137	339	37	36	73	239	173	412
NYS	25	47	72	11	26	37	36	73	109
Polytechnic	41	62	103	13	29	42	54	91	145
Total	937	313	1250	61	92	153	998	405	1403

(Ministry of Education & Culture, Education Statistics. 1996, p. 5)

Table 4: NYS Channel Populations - 1995

SEX	AF	AD	CT	SE	SC	AS	Grand Total
Girls	26	27	5	169	64	257	548
Boys	58	22	203	45	108	78	514
Grand total	84	49	208	214	172	335	1062

NYS CHANNEL POPULATIONS - 1995

AF	Agriculture & Fisheries Channel
AD	Art & Design Channel
CT	Construction/Technology Channel
SE	Social Economics Channel
SC	Science Channel
AS	Arts & Social Science Channel

(Ministry of Education and Culture, 1996)

Table 5: 1995 and 1996 'A' LEVEL ENTRIES SEYCHELLES POLYTECHNIC ANALYSIS BY SUBJECT and GENDER

		1995			1996
		M	F		M	F
FRENCH		7	16		5	24
ENGLISH		10	23		10	30
HISTORY		3	4		4	8
GEOGRAPHY		5	6		7	22
ECONOMICS		7	10		11	12
MATHEMATICS		35	15		29	21
	Syll. C	-	-		12	2
	Further	-	-		7	1
CHEMISTRY		27	14		22	14
BIOLOGY		11	19		12	22
COMPUTING		5	1		14	7
PHYSICS		28	5		27	4
ART		-	-		5	4
Total Entries		138	113		165	171
Total Candidates		47	39		54	58

(based on figures supplied by the Ministry of Education and Culture, June 1996)

c. Primary Perceptions

The children surveyed were all in Primary 6: 86 boys and 91 girls in two rural and four urban locations. The urban schools were situated in and around Victoria; one rural school was in a relatively remote part of Mahé, the main island, and the other on La Digue, a quiet island with little development except for a few hotels for tourists. Annual promotion by age meant that all the pupils were in the 10-12 age group, 82.5% being 11 years old. Not many of their families were large (1-2 children 55.9%; 3-4 children 30%; 5-6 children 6.8%; over 6, 2.3%). Because schools have neighbourhood catchment areas, 75% of the pupils walked to school. In comparison with other countries surveyed, the percentage of mothers who worked outside the home was very high (81.4%), similar only to Jamaica. The mother was still however, the main carer (86%) although grandmothers, older sisters and aunts figured as second carer in many cases.

Despite the high proportion of working mothers, and although 14% of the children, mainly in the rural sample, said that they sometimes could not go to school because they had to help at home, many of the pupils surveyed were concerned only with sweeping (99.4% - every day or sometimes), washing the pots and going on errands to the shop. Half the boys and half the girls ''never'' helped with younger brothers & sisters. The girls were almost unanimous (92.3%) that they helped more than boys. Rural boys tended to agree with them but urban boys were split 50:50 over this. Certain tasks such as washing clothes were certainly more likely to be done by girls: 54% of boys never did the laundry but only 10% of girls never did it.

Both boys (83%) and girls (92%) rejected the idea that girls did not really need to go to school but it was interesting how many rejected the proposition that girls need to go to school as much as boys (boys 63%, girls 36%). A third of the children had the impression that girls were likely to leave school earlier than boys.

Their perceptions of their parents abilities in reading and reading reflect the discrepancy between male and female literacy rates in Seychelles. Ten per cent of mothers were considered not to be "good" at reading and writing whilst the figure rose to 21 % for fathers. Girls were harsher judges than boys.

As regards their futures, 26% rejected the idea of marriage, the rural girls being particularly wary. Overall 82% of boys were prepared to marry but only 64% of the girls. Despite the high illegitimacy rate in Seychelles and the custom of living en ménage, the pupils opted for combining having children with marriage to a statistically significant degree. The numbers of children they envisaged for themselves were usually in the range of 0-2 boys and 0-2 girls although rural boys wanted more sons.

Career ambitions followed a similar pattern to those found in our Jamaican survey: girls had a wide and interesting range of ideas including becoming a singer, detective, surgeon, vet, scientist, dentist, lawyer, immigration officer, journalist or artist, etc. as well as the more sex-stereotyped jobs such as teaching and secretarial work. Rural girls tended to opt more often for teaching and nursing but were attracted to opportunities in hotels where they existed: tourist guide, chambermaid or waitress. Only four boys thought of becoming teachers compared with twenty four girls, a measure of the domination of the teaching profession by women in Seychelles.

The survey overall reflects the dichotomy in girls' participation in education in Seychelles. At primary level they are ahead academically and have plenty of ambition but by the end of secondary education, as we shall see, they are increasingly opting for sex-stereotyped courses and are being over-taken by the boys.

B. Factors

i) Geographical

The isolation of small village communities and the resulting urban-rural dichotomy in the past has now been largely overcome, especially on Mahé and Praslin, the two main islands, by the up-grading of the infrastructure over the last twenty years: roads and local transport have been greatly improved. In addition, a system of zoning for primary schools means that the majority of children have relatively easy access to school at this level. In our survey, 75% of the pupils went to school on foot. Provision of secondary education is also de-centralised. In any case, education at primary and secondary levels is compulsory.

The National Youth Service Year overcomes problems of distance and accessibility by being residential and it is only after that, at Polytechnic level, that problems of access arise. Not only do students on Mahé often have a long way to travel but both boys and girls on the islands of Praslin and La Digue who wish to attend the Polytechnic actually have to move to Mahé. The 1994 National Report on the Situation of Women in Seychelles suggests that a Youth Hostel should be built to enable more girls from the other islands to continue their education at the Polytechnic. This is especially important in view of the increasing number of teenage pregnancies in Seychelles.

The small population of Seychelles cannot support an educational system beyond 'A' level, vocational training, and teacher training. Higher education has to be pursued overseas. It is at this point that the difference in access for males and females widens dramatically. The figures for overseas training in 1994 show 43 females and 85 males following pre-service courses and 50 females and 67 males doing in-service courses.

ii) Socio-cultural

The family in Seychelles has been described as matrifocal or matricentric, the father having a somewhat peripheral position in the domestic unit, particularly in the lower socio-economic groups. Although the ideal is marriage, (as reflected in pupils' answers in our survey) de facto unions which have neither religious nor legal sanctions (known as living en ménage are common in Seychelles. Births are registered by birth status as being nuptial, acknowledged or other. In 1994 for example, there were 1,700 births, of which 398 were to married couples; 787 were "recognised" by the father, and 515 were not. Traditionally, in poorer families at subsistence level, the woman controlled the money because she was in control of buying the food. The mother was a responsible figure, in a central position concerning the control of resources allocated through the household and also ultimately responsible for the children. Sociological studies suggest that Seychellois men traditionally were often seen as rather feckless in comparison, spending money on drink and their friends as a sign of male status. These traditions, added to the impermanence of many en ménage relationships, have meant that Seychellois women are more used to responsibility, decision-making, handling money, and working outside the home than women in many of the other countries surveyed and this accounts at least in part for the extensive use they have made of educational opportunities ever since the first schools were opened in the mid nineteenth century. The 1981-82 Census for example, shows more girls than boys in each of the age groups 12-20 pursuing full-time education although it can be argued that there were more job opportunities for boys in agriculture and fishing so that boys left school and girls stayed on. The evidence of a long history of girls' achievements in primary education and higher literacy levels is reminiscent of Jamaica, along with similar problems of lower motivation, sex-stereotyped choice of options and early pregnancy once the girls reach adolescence. In the past girls would often drop out of school in order to care for younger siblings at home but this problem has been almost completely eradicated by the establishment of a large scale system of crèches over the last twenty years. Many interviewees stressed this point.

iii) Health

Health does not appear to be a significant factor in girls' participation in education except for the problem of teenage pregnancy. In 1996 the situation was still that of girls having to withdraw from the educational system when pregnant but suggestions were being made that alternative provision for schooling might be established.

iv) Economic

Originally a plantation economy, and today copying with problems such as the costs of smallness and changing priorities in international aid, the Seychelles has nevertheless seen a big increase in employment since the early eighties. The 1987 Census shows women more predominant in tourism related work and in secretarial, domestic and social services. The two largest occupation groups were hotel-workers (chambermaids and cleaners) and teachers. The Seychelles National Gender Unit comments that women in general are still not equitably represented in the labour force. Despite the fact that they have a higher literacy rate than men, they still tend to have less prestigious and lower-paying jobs or ones which have traditionally been seen as extensions of their domestic role and functions. With equal opportunities in education and considerable national investment in education, training, health and the social services made to improve their position, nevertheless 48.5% of women are still economically inactive and 53% of skilled job seekers are women (1991 figures).

High teenage fertility rates force girls to drop out of school to look after the children and women who are heads of households with children can often only work part-time or in casual jobs. Low marketable skills and the many responsibilities faced by many women as single parents and heads of households appear to be among the main factors holding women back.

v) Religion

The missions of both the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches in the Seychelles have always been very supportive of education for girls, ever since St. Joseph's Convent School for Girls was established in 1861. All the mission schools founded throughout Seychelles in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were either mixed or had a girls' school along side the one for boys. Although on can smile wryly at the compliment intended by the Director of Education in his report in 1938 when he said - "As one has come to expect from all Convent Schools throughout the Colonies, excellent needlework is done", there is a strong tradition in Seychelles, still active today, of girls working hard at school and being more literate than their brothers. Primary schools, even those for boys, have usually been staffed by women, partly because this was easier when the schools were run by nuns. The 1943 Regulations for Catholic primary schools list rules of conduct for school-mistresses and make no mention at all of school-masters. Teaching is seen today as a largely female profession and the female ethos of the primary schools is held accountable by many interviewees for the under-achievement of boys, if not for the good performance of girls. Although the schools are no longer run by the missions, the factor of religion has had a strong influence on girls' participation in education and through the churches' encouragement of women to become teachers, has opened up opportunities for them in terms of status and earnings.

vi) Legal

Equality of opportunity in education and training is part of a comprehensive set of rights in Seychelles under the constitution and other laws. In practice inequalities do still persist, despite the efforts of legislators to provide the social protection for women and their children which must underlie any attempt at providing equality of opportunity. As in some of the other case-studies in this report, traditional attitudes and practices may militate against adolescent girls fulfilling the promise they demonstrate so ably in the primary school, despite the legal rulings.

vii) Politico-Administrative

Over the last twenty years there has been strong political encouragement for equality of opportunity for girls and women as can be seen in efforts such as the creation of crèches and the involvement of women in local political activities. Women are represented at all levels of government including the ministerial and a National Gender Unit has been established. The Government's Gender Strategy is articulated in the Human Resource Development Programme and includes the developing of programmes to ensure for example the availability of gender disaggregated data and information and effective career guidance.

viii) Education

Within the education system itself, which provides free and unsegregated opportunities at all levels, there are however factors which affect both boys' and girls' participation. Erroll Miller's phrase "the marginalisation of the black male" springs to mind when one looks at the primary level of education.

Primary schools are staffed largely by women. In 1996 there were only three male Headteachers to twenty-nine females and only 7 out of 47 Directors of Studies were male. In the schools in our survey, Primary I-IV classes were taught entirely by women; a few men taught in Primary V and VI (where there is some semi-specialisation), often in the areas of mathematics, science & craft.

Just as women dominate among the teachers, so do the girls dominate in the classroom. As soon as streaming starts in Primary 3/4, the top streams are full of girls and the boys predominate in the bottom groups. The figures for one school in the survey tabled below are typical:

PRIMARY THREE CLASSES: SAMPLE URBAN SCHOOL
STREAM	GIRLS	BOYS
A	25	8
B	23	11
C	12	22
D	13	22
E	10	15

In Primary 6 in the same school there were 2 girls and 22 boys in one bottom set and 7 girls and 20 boys in the other. A rural school with similar figures at primary level found that the pattern also continued into the secondary classes.

The female ethos is also apparent where parents are concerned. Headteachers said that it is the mothers who are most involved. It is the mothers who come in to school, who serve on committees and who are the initiators and organisers.

Causes of strong female participation in education at primary level are seen to include:

· the availability of places and strong enrolment and attendance procedures.

· the accessibility of schools which is good because of zoning and the provision of transport where necessary.

· the low costs for parents: education is free & so were lunches until recently - even now they are very cheap.

· pre-school provision is good: crèches in all districts mean that girls are not kept off school to look after younger siblings.

It was however stressed by interviewees that in the past when there were fees and transport costs to pay, parents did not usually discriminate against girls where school was concerned. If they could not pay, both boys and girls left.

Female enrolment at primary, secondary and polytechnic level is on average equal to that of boys. The problem area as far as girls are concerned starts with option choices in the secondary school, in the National Youth Service Year and at the Polytechnic. The sex-stereotyped choices (see Tables 4 and 5, p. 90-91) affect later career options, vocational training and higher education.

Beyond 'A' level, women are very much in the minority apart from in teacher-training. Academic and professional courses at tertiary level are taken up mainly by males: females constitute only one third of this group. In addition there are very limited opportunities of re-entry for those girls and women who drop out of the education system at an earlier point.

ix. Initiatives

There are many initiatives at all levels to develop awareness of gender issues in education. As far as girls are concerned, future developments are seen to lie in the area of the actual range of options at secondary and polytechnic level (as well as in stereotyped choices), and in the encouragement of girls to go on into higher education. Interestingly however, as in Jamaica, there is also the problem of boys' performance in the primary school which needs to be addressed.

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