Honouring Miss Odile Octave

Odile Octave started her educational career when she enrolled on a pre-teaching course from January 1972 to December 1973. She then joined the Teacher Training College as a Supply Teacher from January 1974 to December 1976. Following her training she was posted at Good Shepherd School in January 1977 and became a Certificated Teacher in January 1978. She taught at Mont Fleuri primary school for 9 years.

Miss Octave successfully completed her Middle Primary Diploma Course part I in December 1985 and part II in December 1986.

In January 1987 Miss Octave was promoted to Studies Coordinator and was transferred to La Rosière school. She remained in post until her promotion as head teacher of Les Mamelles school in January 1989, where she stayed for 3 years.

Miss Octave was transferred to Plaisance primary school as head teacher in January 1992.

From 1990 to 1993 Miss Octave followed a distance course on School Administration with the University of Quebec à Trois Rivières.

She left for 1 year overseas training at Lincoln University in September 2003 until September 2004, where she qualified with an MBA Degree. As an MBA graduate she has tutored both groups of students on the Masters Degree Course:

Lincoln University’s MBA in Educational Leadership (2004 – 2007) and Warwick University’s MA in Leadership and Innovation (2008 – 2010).

In January 2007 Miss Octave was appointed as director primary school and in July 2010 she was promoted to director general, a post she held until her retirement in December 2020.

During her tenure Miss Octave has attended several workshops, both nationally and internationally. Some of these are:

– Participated in Youth Emancipation Summit held in USA and Italy from November 20-30, 2006

– Attended a 3-day workshop entitled ‘Accelerating Efforts to attain the Millennium Development Goals’ in 2015. Workshop was held in Zimbabwe from May 7-9, 2007.

– A participé à un atelier de réflexion à l’Institut National de L’Education, sur la didactique convergente et adaptée pour l’enseignement du français en contexte seychelloise, organisé conjointement par l’Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie et le Ministère de l’Education des Seychelles du 13 au 17 Août 2007.

– Participated in a training workshop on Strategic Planning of Education organised in Mont Fleuri from March 9-13, 2009.

– Participated in a Regional Workshop on Early Childhood from October 24-26, 2012.

– Participated in the Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Ministerial Conference on Education Post-15 held in Kigali, Rwanda from February 9-11, 2015.

– Attended the ‘Health in All Policies (HiAP) – Study Tour from November 28 to December 9, 2016 held in Gaborone in Botswana.

– Attended the 20th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers held in Fiji from February 19-23, 2018.

– Participated in recruitment of Teachers in Zambia from March 13-20, 2018.

Miss Octave has also served on several committees.

– Member of P9 Awards Committee

– Member of Language Policy Review Committee

– Member of Teachers’ Day Committee

– Member of Seychelles Headteachers Association

– Member of the Board of the Agency for Social Protection

– Chairperson of the Early Childhood Care and Education Technical Team from May 1, 2017 to May 1, 2019

– Membre du Comité National de l’Autisme

– Member of the Reviewed System of Application and Admission Process 2018.

Special message to Miss Odile Octave

The Ministry of Education is extremely grateful and would like to honour you for your many years of service and dedication to Education. May your new beginning be filled with happy memories of the years you spent contributing to the success of Education in the Seychelles. Happy retirement!

Source: Seychelles Nation