My Experience as a Volunteer with the Seychelles NYS, 1981
By Kamoji Wachiira
Early in 1981 Olivier Le Brun visited Nairobi and introduced me to the proposed programme for the Seychelles. He referred me to a paper titled The Seychelles National Youth Service: the Seeds of a New Society. I was impressed by the progressive ideas for transforming a colonial system of education and re-imagining the future Seychellois society. The NYS was seen as a first step towards building a more equitable and dynamic socialist nation. Instead of traditional teaching in the abstract or by rote, the NYS would educate youth using co-operative and practical methodologies while doing away with competitive examinations. I found the concept bold and inspiring and, as a Kenyan, I was also interested in building south-south cultural exchanges. I immediately accepted Olivier’s invitation to volunteer as a short-term trainer during my break teaching at university – August and September, 1981.
At that time in Kenya, as in much of Africa, vigorous discussions were taking place on the failure of education systems to equip students with knowledge and skills that could better serve societies emerging from imperial occupation. Western donors such as the World Bank were forcing governments to avoid substantive reforms - while at the same time stifling public discussion of alternative forms of learning that could best address the many urgent development and social needs. National youth services in several African countries had been initiated by Israel in the 1960’s as part of that country’s diplomatic plans for isolating Palestine across the continent. In spite of Israel’s kibbutz traditions of co-operative and communal living, the NYS model Israel exported was paramilitary at its core, bereft of any progressive social goals, let alone educational reform.
In stark contrast, the Seychelles NYS recognised the need to re-order education and society from an elitist footing by energising the youth and reducing class and racial divisions which had persisted since the days of slave-based plantation economy. Why did I so readily accept the invitation to volunteer? Simply put, the Seychelles NYS concept offered me an opportunity to both contribute and to experience first-hand this radical new approach and to translate social theory into practical action. I volunteered to teach alternative methods of crop production using soil-less culture i.e. hydroponics. It was understood that this would be done as a sub-component of the already existing ‘Crops block’ in the Agricultural production stream, where introductory biology of crops was already being offered. That left me free to concentrate mainly on teaching how to build, operate and maintain a simple hydroponics system – a technological innovation using hands-on, ‘learning by doing’ methods.
Hydroponics
Hydroponics is a soil-less gardening technology which, compared to traditional farming, can conserve water-use by up to 90% for the same crop output. It is particularly useful in regions with limited arable land and scarce water resources. In densely populated, resource-poor countries where arable land or distance to fresh food supplies are problems – hydroponics can be of considerable benefit to households in terms of food security and nutrition. There are several kinds of low-management, soil-less gardening methods that are suitable for most Seychelles households. These include simple vertical gardens e.g. using drums or PVC tubes, hanging grow-bags, and window or balcony planter systems.
A simple hydroponics system consists of the following basic elements:
A pump (often manual)
A water tank or cistern
A growing bed filled 20-30 cm deep with such inert material as fine gravel or coarse sand (called the ‘substrate’ or soil-substitute).
Hoses and fittings for simple plumbing.
Rapid Needs Assessment
On arrival at Port Launay and after meeting with students and the relevant NYS leadership I conducted a rapid background assessment and obtained the following findings:
a) Most of the rural (and some of the urban) population engaged in subsistence food-crop gardening. A considerable percentage also undertook small-scale commercial cropping. As a result most NYS students had experienced cropping practices at home and probably already possessed considerable gardening knowledge and skills.
b) Although a few districts on Mahe island are not productive, Seychelles with its small population generally does not experience significant shortages of water or arable land – the two main requirements for justifying soil-less crop production. As such hydroponics turned out to be useful as a learning tool to expose students to a new, appropriate-level technology which may well have future possibilities. (It is worth noting that Seychelles has many small, isolated settlements located in distant islands with unproductive rocky sands where land and water constraints do exist. Hydroponics would be useful in such locations).
c) What turned out to be an important constraint for low-income, rural households was affordable fuel for cooking. In the 1980’s electricity and kerosene were so costly that firewood and other locally collected biomass were the main fuels used by the poor for cooking. It occurred to me that energy-efficient stoves can save households much time and labour spent collecting wood while at the same time reducing the rate of deforestation. (It should be noted that collecting and hauling of firewood was mainly done by women and children).
Energy-efficient Stoves
With the above findings in mind I recommended to the NYS management that, in addition to the hydroponics sub-component, it would be beneficial to also expose students to energy-efficient stoves. As a result a second sub–component on energy efficient stoves was incorporated alongside hydroponics. Since the Energy was not offered as a subject in the 1st year the stove project was seen as a ‘pilot sub-component’ preparatory to the proper 2nd year ‘Energy block’. Using appropriate technology methods, students participated in building two prototype demonstration stoves designed to burn crop-waste biomass and or minimal amounts of wood-fuel.
End of My Stay
Implementing a program as complex as the NYS - involving such a drastic shift in education methodology – was anticipated to be a major challenge for all concerned - managers, students and policy-makers. I arrived in the first year just when everyone was understandably busy ‘finding their feet’ and dealing with frequent contingencies. Despite heavy workloads it was evident that most people were keen to lay the foundations for future success. It was remarkable how eager students were to acquire new skills while discovering workable solutions to old problems – and achieving this by actually doing things in practice.
Unfortunately, due to my University commitments in Nairobi my stay at Port Launay ended before the two sub-components were firmly established in the syllabus. However, judging by the high level of curiosity shown by participating students it was clear that both the utility and novelty of the two technologies had spurred student interest which made the learning process easier. In various discussions with students I received the following comments: “I like hydroponics, it is easier than tilling the land”; “hydroponics is clean, has no mud”; “my mother wants me to work in Mahe, not doing farm work like her”; “the stoves are less smoky and save us from searching for firewood daily”; “the stoves keep food warm longer”. In particular, three students (two female, one male) stood out by asking to learn more about the two technologies. I therefore taught them in slightly more depth and informed management about their dedication in the hope that they could continue to operate and maintain the two technologies following my departure. I was happy to learn afterwards that, in fact, both the hydroponics and energy efficient stoves projects went on operating during the first year as a club with committed students in charge.
Need for an Evaluation NYS Lessons-Learned
During my stay at Port Launay one question remained uppermost in my mind: Can the NYS programme or aspects of it be replicated in other countries? In other words, could such a programme, or generic elements from it, be adapted as a model elsewhere in Africa? To fully answer that question an evaluation exercise would need to be conducted in order to draw out examples of successes and pitfalls. However, at first glance it seems highly unlikely that African countries with huge student populations, larger geographies and ideologically backward governments would even contemplate the model. The NYS was a site-specific programme whose content and format were designed to address unique Seychellois problems. Importantly, it was preceded by the successful overthrow of a conservative regime by progressive political leaders who were ideologically committed to socialist transformation of the Seychelles. In other words, radical political changes are a necessary pre-requisite for a programme such as the Seychelles NYS to be viable.
August 2020