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Event Report

Opportunities and Challenges in Transforming Education in Maldives

July 20, 2020

The speaker of the talk was Dr. Andulla Rasheed Ahmed, Minister of State for Education Maldives. Dr. Abdulla Rasheed Ahmed is the Minister of State for Education, Republic of Maldives. Mr. Rasheed is a distinguished educationalist with 30 years of experience in the field of education. Dr. Rasheed served as a principal of a government school for 18 years. He is a Former Vice Rector of Avid College and is currently the Head of the National Institute of Education. Dr. Rasheed was awarded with the title of the best principal of the Maldives in 2010. He is also the Global Goodwill Ambassador of the International Education Advisory Council. He holds his Ph.D. in Instructional Leadership from Asia E University, Malaysia, and MA in Educational Leadership from the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom.

One of the biggest challenges that has been highlighted by Dr. Ahmed is related to the fact that Maldives, being an island country, has several island states that are situated at considerable distances, making not only education, but transportation to be costly as well. This situation has led to scenarios wherein one state only has one school, and in case a student relocates, he or she will have to change his or her school as well.

This challenge has brought a halt in delivering knowledge efficiently, especially because transportation from one state to another is extremely costly. If the youth of Maldives is not given quality education, it is possible that even the tourism industry in the country will dry out because of the lack of talent and entrepreneurial spirit.

Moreover, it was also highlighted by Dr. Ahmed that despite having the highest literacy rate amongst the majority of the South Asian countries, Maldives faces challenges in delivering education due to a shortage of qualified teachers. It is reported that the reason for such a scenario may be because of a high rate of internal migration within the country. Because of this, the country has a number of teachers who come from foreign lands to deliver quality education to the students. Majority of such teachers belong to India.

Aside from the above, the webinar also pointed out that Maldives has a certain difficulty in defining the level of education. This is because, not specifically in regards to Maldives but rather on a larger scale, one focuses too much on examinations rather than practical education and experiences. Dr. Ahmed corrects, education should never be defined as a competition, but as a challenge, stemming towards growth.

It is interestingly observed that the government of Maldives provides such high priority to education, that it has given the biggest share in the budget towards the education sector. This is in order to produce a youth which can not only sustain the country’s future, but also theirs. This is only possible through quality education.

Lastly, Dr. Ahmed concludes the talk by opining that although education is being promoted extensively in Maldives by the government, it fails to transform according to the appropriate times. Through this, the guest speaker emphasized on the fact that the pandemic has not only transformed the way we work, but also the way we need to think in future. This is because, after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, every industry faced a major transformation. If the youth of Maldives is not prepared accordingly for the future that is ‘uncertain,’ one cannot be sustainable. Thus, Maldives should promote practical skills, entrepreneurial skills, as well as creative skills to ensure a bright future for the youth of the country.

Prepared by Poulomi Chatterjee, Intern at NIICE, Nepal