Key Takeaways
The partnership between Britannica Education and the Ministry of Education Seychelles demonstrates how trusted digital learning resources can support nationwide digital transformation, strengthen independent research skills, and improve access to safe, differentiated educational content.
⏱️ Nationwide Digital Transformation: All 38 schools across the Seychelles gained access to safe and secure digital content across all subject areas, supporting the Ministry’s transition from print-based learning to a modern digital education system.
✅ Trusted & Safe Research Environment: Students and educators benefited from expert-reviewed, reliable content in a safe online environment, helping reduce reliance on unverified web sources and supporting confident independent research.
📊 Built-In Differentiation & Accessibility: Britannica School supported diverse learning needs through three differentiated reading levels, 90+ language translations, offline access, read-aloud functionality, and in-article support tools such as the double-click dictionary.
🎯 Comprehensive Training & Ongoing Support: Britannica provided extensive in-person and virtual training for teachers, students, librarians, and school leaders, including workshops, bespoke promotional materials, monthly support meetings, and annual implementation visits.
🚀 Increased Student Engagement & Platform Usage: Training initiatives led to significant increases in engagement, including a 3x increase in searches after the 2023 primary school workshops and more than 40,000 individual searches conducted during the 2024 secondary school training week.
📈 Demonstrated Nationwide Impact: The partnership generated strong year-on-year usage growth, including 5,040,685 page interactions, 172,653 individual searches, and 43,736 document downloads, demonstrating sustained adoption and value across Seychelles schools.
🧠 Supports Independent Learning & Exam Preparation: Students used Britannica School to strengthen research skills, prepare for exams, complete homework and extension tasks, and build confidence as independent learners and global citizens.
🏫 Whole-School & Community Access: Britannica School supported not only students and teachers, but also parents and the wider school community through anytime, anywhere access across devices, including at home and on mobile.
Introduction & Background
Encyclopaedia Britannica have been the historians throughout the generations, documenting human potential in every discovery and innovation. With information written by globally recognised scholars, Britannica’s trustworthy authority is unmatched and remains the purveyor of trusted knowledge.
The Ministry of Education Seychelles had the mission “to build a coherent and comprehensive system of quality education and training” for each of the 38 schools across the country. After connecting with the Seychelles Ministry of Education, it was clear that Britannica were very well positioned to support them in their digital transformation, as they looked to move away from using just textbooks in the education system.
From differentiated content to interactive activities, Britannica was able to provide educators with the power to stimulate students’ higher-order thinking skills and inspire curiosity. Young people were given the confidence to independently hone the breadth and depth of their knowledge and prepare with the skills they will inevitably need later in life as global citizens.
This partnership has meant that every student and educator across the Seychelles now has access to safe and secure digital content for all subjects for the next three years.
“It was both exciting and encouraging to see how enthusiastic the members of the Ministry team were when we introduced the project in 2022. The combined passion and dedication to provide schools with access to high-quality digital content ensured that we were able to work closely with each school, supporting them with the transition to digital.”
— Luke Saunders, Senior Business Development Manager
The How Did the Project Start?
After conversations with various team members of the Ministry of Education, it was established that there was an opportunity for all schools across the Seychelles to benefit from access to Britannica School. It was agreed that the initiative would first be tested with teachers across 11 secondary schools as a pilot before visiting the country and running school training sessions for members of each school, including primary schools.
Why Britannica School?
With its three differentiated learning levels, Britannica School was identified as the ideal starting point to assist the Ministry with the switch from print to digital learning. The platform also included multiple features that could support both students with research and teachers with classroom teaching support.
The Pilot
Each of the 38 schools had two representatives present across the virtual and in-person training sessions — the School Principal and a designated “Britannica Champion,” who would act as the point of contact for any further training or questions from teachers within the wider school community during the pilot period.
Pilot Support
Britannica’s expert team provided all schools taking part in the pilot with bespoke training sessions, introducing them to the platform’s key features. Alongside interactive workshops, Britannica worked with the Ministry to create co-branded promotional materials for the Seychelles school community, including:
- A guided PDF tour
- Offline guided presentations
- Bespoke posters to support in-school promotion
Britannica School Online
Britannica School Online is a safe and educational online learning resource trusted by millions of teachers and pupils across the globe.
The information within Britannica School is updated daily and spans a range of media, including videos, images, and audio content, with all content available for offline download. Curated and reviewed by professional editors, the platform ensures students are learning in a safe environment across all subject areas.
The platform benefits the entire school community, including parents, because it can be accessed anywhere, anytime, including on mobile devices.
The breadth of resources available means that schools with diverse student populations, mixed-ability classes, or project-based learning models can easily support different learner needs.
Key accessibility and differentiation features include:
- Offline access to content
- Three differentiated reading levels
- Translation into 90+ languages
- Read-aloud functionality
- Double-click dictionary support
Britannica Training Activity — 2023
n 2023, two members of the Britannica team travelled to the Seychelles to continue implementation support, with a focus on primary school students while continuing teacher training initiatives.
Across the week, selected students from all primary schools across the Seychelles participated in three-hour interactive workshops introducing them to Britannica School.
The sessions were designed to help primary students:
- Research information safely online
- Use built-in accessibility and learning support features
- Access Britannica at home and at school
- Support homework and extension activities
Each student who completed the training received a certificate.
The impact of this training was immediately visible, with the total number of searches made on Britannica School across the Seychelles increasing to three times higher than in 2022.
Britannica also conducted teacher sessions at the Teacher Training Institute attached to the Ministry of Education building.
In addition to in-person training, virtual training sessions remained available to all schools whenever needed. These sessions were tailored to the departments and educators attending so that the Britannica training team could provide focused support based on subject-area requirements.
Student sessions were also made available to schools and parents, helping students understand which platform features would best support their individual learning needs.
Parents were encouraged to participate as Britannica School could be accessed both at home and within the classroom.
Teacher & Student Feedback
“Britannica truly helped me understand all of the topics that I am learning about. The information is written by experts and can’t be edited, which is why I won’t be using Google anymore. Britannica will support me with my IGCSEs.”
— Secondary School (S4) Student, Mount Fleuri Secondary School
“With my personal difficulties, I only wish that I knew about this site for my exams. It has no distracting ads on it and will help me to navigate online safely, with the content beneficial for educational purposes.”
— Secondary School (S3) Student, Pointe Larue Secondary School
“Britannica gets an overall ‘excellent’ from me. The thing that was most interesting is that I can find information on all topics. I will be sharing the benefits with my students and teachers after receiving the training.”
— ICT Teacher, Praslin Secondary School
“Britannica is rich in relevant and credible content. It can be used with trust and confidence. It is a resource that I will use for content in my lessons and as a source to reference for students.”
— School Librarian, Grand Anse Mahe Primary School
Britannica Training Activity — 2024
In June 2024, the Britannica team returned to the Seychelles to continue implementation support during the project’s second year.
This phase focused on secondary school students. Every secondary school across the country was visited, with more than 20 students from each school participating in one-hour workshops led by the Britannica team.
Students were encouraged to suggest curriculum topics they were studying for exams so they could see how Britannica School could support:
- Exam preparation
- Daily research
- Independent learning
- Use of Intermediate and Advanced platform levels
The increase in engagement was immediate and encouraging.
More than 40,000 individual searches were conducted during the training week alone.
Students were able to log into Britannica School across all devices, with many creating quick-access links for ongoing use.
In addition to student sessions, Britannica conducted librarian workshops to continue the professional training commitment outlined within the agreement with the Ministry of Education Seychelles.
Each librarian received additional support materials to take back to their schools to help further promote platform access and usage.
Project Analysis to Date
The Britannica Education & Ministry of Education Seychelles project is now into its second full year, and the positive impact is evident through increasing year-on-year usage.
In 2023 alone, the Britannica School resource recorded:
- 172,653 individual searches
- 43,736 document downloads
- 5,040,685 total page interactions
The most used level in 2023 was Level 1 (Foundation), which is aimed at students aged 5-11 years old. This level had 73.5% of the total activity. Level 2 (Intermediate), aimed at students aged 11-15, made up 20.1% of the total activity and then Level 3 (Advanced) recorded just 6.4% of activity. After a successful training week focused on the secondary school students, the 2024 usage report should show a significant increase in usage in ‘Level 2‘ and ‘Level 3‘, which again reinforces the benefit and importance of continuing to support the Seychelles with training.
“Britannica has ensured continuous support of the project with monthly virtual meetings with school representatives since the project began in 2022, along with the annual training visits, where they also present a detailed impact report to the entire Ministry team.”
— Director General, Department of Education Sector Development (MoE Seychelles)
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