About Project PULSE

Project PULSE is a student wellbeing, support and safety initiative developed as a flagship project under the Tyler Nicholas Foundation. The project originated as a post-program action project following participation in the Youth Ambassadors programme and is being developed with the long-term objective of improving how students in Seychelles access wellbeing support within the education system.

Students can experience a wide range of challenges during their education. These may include academic pressure, stress, bullying, interpersonal difficulties, concerns about safety, problems at home or simply periods when they feel overwhelmed and need somebody to speak with.

While schools already provide different forms of student support, students do not always feel comfortable accessing those services directly. A student may hesitate to physically approach a counselling office, may not know who is responsible for a particular issue or may worry about who will know that they have asked for help.

Project PULSE seeks to address these barriers by exploring how student wellbeing and support services could be made more accessible through the digital infrastructure students already use.

The proposed model would allow a student to enter a dedicated PULSE environment from their education account. Within that environment, students could potentially complete short wellbeing check-ins, request assistance, contact authorised counsellors, request appointments, raise bullying or safety concerns and access trusted wellbeing and support resources.

The project is not intended to replace counsellors, teachers, health professionals or safeguarding personnel. Technology would instead provide a pathway connecting students with the people and services capable of supporting them. Human review, professional judgement and appropriate safeguarding procedures would remain essential.

Project PULSE is also intended to help schools understand broader student wellbeing needs. When appropriate privacy safeguards are applied, aggregated and anonymised information may help identify trends such as increasing student stress, periods of high academic pressure, increased demand for counselling or patterns in reported bullying concerns. Such information could help schools and education authorities make better-informed decisions about wellbeing programmes, counsellor capacity, staffing and resources.

Project PULSE is currently being developed around the possibility of integration into Seychelles' OpenEMIS-based national education platform.

OpenEMIS is an education management information system designed to support governments and education systems in managing student, school and education information.

Rather than creating another independent account, application and database for students, PULSE could potentially operate as a dedicated module or connected service within the existing national education infrastructure. A student could therefore access academic services and wellbeing support through the same wider digital environment.

The final technical architecture has not yet been determined and would require consultation and development with the relevant Ministry of Education and technical teams.

Project PULSE is not intended to become a student surveillance system. Confidentiality and trust are fundamental to the concept.

Information should only be accessible according to appropriate roles and responsibilities. Counsellors and authorised wellbeing or safeguarding personnel may require access to certain individual information in order to provide support, while school administrators or national education authorities may require only broader anonymised information. Individual counselling conversations should not simply become general administrative records available to anyone within an education system.

Students should understand what information is collected, why it is collected and who may access it. Seeking wellbeing support should not negatively affect a student's academic record or automatically become a disciplinary matter.

Project PULSE is currently in its development and consultation stage. The project has been presented to representatives of the Seychelles Ministry of Education as part of early discussions around how the concept could complement the country's developing digital education infrastructure.

The next stages of the project include:

Project PULSE was initiated as a post-program action project following participation in the Youth Ambassadors programme.

The project reflects the programme's emphasis on youth leadership, community engagement and turning ideas into practical initiatives capable of creating positive local impact.

Following its initial development, Project PULSE was established under the Tyler Nicholas Foundation to provide the project with a clearer organisational structure and support its long-term development, partnerships and potential implementation.