Education
From the outset, education was the priority of the France-Albert René regime, which was determined to offer every child the same opportunities at school. "Before June 5, 1977, most adolescents, with the exception of a privileged few hundred, entered the market at a very young age, untrained and unprepared to enter adult life", official texts rightly point out. The country has indeed become more educated: every Seychellois spends an average of fifteen years at school. Schooling is compulsory for the nine years of primary school, the National Youth Service, created at the height of the revolutionary wave (in 1981), having been abolished at the end of the 1990s. Over a period of fifteen years, it "raised awareness of the virtues of socialism" among the new generation, with students "learning to participate in the social, cultural and political life of the country, while familiarizing themselves with new relationships at work". Secondary education takes place at the Seychelles Polytechnic School, founded in 1983 to meet the archipelago's development prospects. The school has a dozen streams: social sciences, health, teaching, science, agriculture, construction and engineering, crafts, arts, hospitality..
Only the best students will receive scholarships to foreign universities (mainly in Great Britain). The revolisyon of ex-president René has therefore been beneficial in terms of education, in a country where the Church has long compensated for the shortcomings of official education. The Constitution now provides for the right to free education up to the age of 17, and a section of the Education Act stipulates that parents whose children are absent for more than three weeks without a valid reason are liable to a fine or three months' imprisonment.
Health
Seychellois quickly got used to the achievements of the revolution, in healthcare for example. The system set up after liberation is one of the most cherished achievements of the population. Thanks to it, every citizen, without discrimination, benefits from free medical care. The same attention is now paid to the sick, which was not the case before the class system was abolished. Since June 5, 1977, the country has made health the second priority in its annual budget. Beyond the obvious progress in infant mortality (halved) and life expectancy (72.2 years for men, 81.1 years for women by 2024), it is worth noting the good health of these islands, spared from some of the major scourges of the African continent (malaria, yellow fever, dysentery...). However, some 200 cases of AIDS have been reported.
The number of doctors has increased, as have the number of consultations and hospital beds, but it is still sometimes necessary to undergo surgery abroad, as heart surgery, for example, requires investments too costly for such a small nation. A special treatment fund covers certain expenses incurred outside the country (mainly on Reunion Island). In 1979, the State also set up a social security system to protect citizens throughout their lives and, in some cases, cover funeral expenses.
Work
The monthly retirement allowance is paid from the age of 63. At the end of 2019, President Danny Faure announced that the retirement age would be raised from 63 to 65. But in 2024, the reform was still pending. There is still work for almost everyone, and the unemployment rate hovered around 3% in 2024, even though the rate of people living below the poverty line still stands at almost 25%. This is why a government agency is offering four hundred people part-time work on farms, cleaning jobs or repairing government buildings, often with additional training, until they find permanent jobs. In the Seychelles, the minimum wage is around €360 and the number of paid vacations is 21.
Habitat
In the field of housing, too, the revolution proved its worth. One of the first actions taken by the new regime was to acquire land for an ambitious apartment-building program. Several thousand dwellings were built to complement existing villages or in new residential areas, often on hillsides given the terrain. Through subsidies, grants and credits, the State has greatly encouraged urban planning. The government's policy is to encourage every tenant to become a homeowner. Although many under-housed Mahélois are still on the waiting list, the impetus has indeed been given, as witnessed by the inauguration of the artificial island in the north of the island, where a large number of disadvantaged families have been housed since 2012. Still common at the end of the English era, the squalid huts have fortunately disappeared from the landscape.
Morals and society facts
Gentle living. "Never do today what you can do tomorrow The Seychellois are rather nonchalant: why should we cultivate the earth, when it shows itself generous without our touching it? "God plants, Seychellois reap", confirms a local proverb. Mangoes, papayas, avocados, bananas, coconuts and other breadfruit are all within easy reach For zourite, of course, you have to take the trouble to go into the breakers, and for pwason, you still have to take a trip out to sea, but once you've secured your meals, there's no point in lingering... There'll be some zob or bourzois left in the ocean tomorrow. A plot of land and a few trees, a fishing boat, a palm-roofed hut and some calou - it didn't take much for yesterday's Seychellois to be happy. Until consumer society caught up with him and prompted him to slowly slide from subsistence economy to market economy. But even with a smartphone and more rupees in his pocket, he still loves to live day by day.
A people proud of their islands. The Seychellois is as kind as he is polite, quickly laughing and friendly as soon as the dialogue begins. Very soon, the "tu" will mean friendship and equality. As proud as he is sensitive, this islander has no complexes about rich travelers from big countries. He is particularly proud of his islands, and is quick to point out that two of the Seychelles' sites are listed as World Heritage Sites. So why would the Seychellois go elsewhere... if not to Mauritius, Dubai or Abu Dhabi, but not for tourism in the classical sense of the word. No, to go shopping, to find at last, and at low prices, what he could never buy in Mahé. Car parts in Singapore, electronics in Dubai, clothes in Mauritius or wood in South Africa. These purchases are taxed on return, but for the most part they are resold, quickly paying back taxes and travel expenses. Although still living elsewhere (mainly in Australia, in Perth and Melbourne), many of the 25,000 or so Seychellois exiled since the progressive years are also returning to the country, some having even resettled there, sometimes with compensation, since revolution had rhymed with expropriation. Easily adaptable to new situations, as calm as they are open to strangers and foreigners, Seychellois take life in their stride, as long as they have their fish, their beer and their family.
Family. The latter, by the way, is very large. Given the low population density (that of a medium-sized French town), it's easy to come across great-grand-aunts or little cousins in every corner of a store. In fact, the 98,000 Seychellois form one big family where almost everyone knows everyone else... A family with rather blurred contours, as more than three-quarters of children are born out of wedlock. In fact, paternity is only recognized in half of all cases. Despite a strong Christian tradition, promiscuity has always been a major issue in the Seychelles, where people have no qualms about regularly changing partners.
"The Seychelles are the islands of love. Here, we produce nothing but children", noted Henri de Monfreid. The Seychellois Church has long been hostile to contraception, with the Bishop of Victoria going so far as to proclaim, in 1980, that "women who take the pill are beasts". Despite the fact that contraception is free, unwanted births remain numerous. Pregnant teenagers rarely raise an eyebrow. "My daughter is neither the first nor the last," their parents often say. Anthropologists who have studied family structure in the Seychelles believe that there is a kind of matrifocality in both free and legal unions. This means that the man occupies only a peripheral position in the family structure, with the woman taking all the important decisions. "Not only does she bring up the children, but she often earns the household money. It's not uncommon to find young, single mothers single-handedly raising a flock of children from several different families. No one blames them, on the contrary. Only the priests complain. The women here are wonderful, but they have a weakness. They're sentimental and too often let themselves be won over..." confirmed the late scholar Guy Lionnet. Of Mauritian origin, the wise man of the archipelago admired this exemplary people in many ways: "The Seychelles contain a thousand treasures, but the most remarkable are its inhabitants, of all origins: Europeans, Africans, Indians, Asians. Few places offer such a mix of cultures. But unlike Mauritius, for example, ethnic groups don't just live together. Seychellois have no barriers. They live, work and marry in a perpetual melting pot. In the street, you'll come across every skin color, but there's only one Seychellois race"
