{"id":2713,"date":"2020-02-25T11:15:44","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T06:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stem.climate.mv\/?page_id=2713"},"modified":"2020-02-25T15:29:05","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T10:29:05","slug":"education-in-maldives","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/stem.climate.mv\/index.php\/education-in-maldives\/","title":{"rendered":"Education in Maldives"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Education in Maldives<\/h1>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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1. INTRODUCTION<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

Over the past two decades the Maldives has seen significant improvements in access to education; however, there are still many challenges impeding quality education in the Maldives. There is a growing concern with the quality of education in the Maldives. In order to gain address this growing concern with the quality of education and to gain an understanding of the issues within the education system in the Maldives from a multiple stakeholder perspective, a nationwide education was forum was organised by MaldivesResearch. The aim of this forum was to identify the key challenges facing the education sector in the Maldives, guided by five selected themes: education, training and industry; qualifications and quality control in education; school curriculum; language in education; and governance and management of schools and colleges.<\/p>\n\n

1.1 Education in the Maldives<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

In the Maldives, formal education starts when children are at the age of 3 (Figure 1) and primary school education starts from the age of 6. Pupils spend 5 years at secondary level, finishing school education at 17 years of age.<\/p>\n\n

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The Maldivian Constitution entitles all children to access primary and secondary education (Hussain, 2008:9). However, the compulsory education age range has yet to be given legal status, even though past initiatives have targeted all children attaining at least 7 years of primary education from the age of 6 and completing at the age of 12 (UNData, 2012). Literacy rate in the Maldives is a remarkable 96% (ranked 29th out of 121 countries) with little difference between male and female literacy rates (Nationmaster, 2012)<\/p>\n\n

1.2 Student Population, Enrolments and Attainments<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

Across the country there are four types of schools: state-run schools, state subsidized community schools, public-private partnership schools (PPPs) and private schools. Altogether, 375 schools provide education for just under 88,000 students, a quarter of the national population. Out of these schools, 58% are state-run. Male\u2019, the capital, has 6% of the total schools providing education for 41% of the student population. In terms of equality of access for both the sexes in education, gender parity in the Maldives education system is high across all levels of school education (see Figure 2 below).<\/p>\n\n

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National Gross Enrolment Ratios (GERs) for primary education in 2010 (Figure 3) suggest that the Maldives has a participation rate (106%) comparable to the rest of the World, including High Income countries. However, the Maldives GER for secondary education (69%), is considerably lower than the GER in High Income countries (101%). This flags secondary education as an area where the Maldives has much room for increased participation.<\/p>\n\n

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A closer scrutiny of data suggests that the specific area that is failing to engage potential students is higher secondary education (see Figure 4), which targets 16-17 year olds. Lower secondary education (13-15 years) enrolment rates for the three years exceed even primary education figures. However, barring a gradual improving trend, the higher secondary education enrolment rates have been alarmingly low at 18% in 2009 and 36% in 2011. Such disengagement from education amongst young people may give rise to or contribute to many nationwide social issues such as high unemployment and high crime rates.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The primary school completion rate in the Maldives is high at 140% in 2005 and 114% in 2010 (Figure 6 below) and the Maldives has a much higher rate than many developing countries. The Maldives\u2019 primary completion rates are also higher than the world\u2019s average and that of the High Income countries, which include the world\u2019s 70 richest nations or High-Income countries as defined by the World Bank (2013b). However, figures exceeding 100% also show that there is a relatively high number of students completing their primary education after their expected graduation age, perhaps because there are some children who start their primary school at an older age than expected.<\/p>\n

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In lower secondary school, the attainment rates have been a concern for some time. In the lower secondary grade 10 Cambridge IGCE\/GCE examinations, only 27% of students achieved a pass (Grades A-C) in 5 subjects or more in 2008, although there has been some improvement in the pass rates between 2008 and 2011 (see Figure 7). More concerning is the fact that 16% of students did not achieve a single pass in 2011, despite an 8% improvement since 2008. Hameed (2012) notes that 6 million Maldivian Rufiyaa (est. US$390,000) had been spent on exam fees of students who had not achieved any passes in 2008.<\/p>\n

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With regards to tertiary education, in 2011 the country had sixteen institutes providing further, vocational and higher education courses, of which five were government owned. There is currently one university, the Maldives National University (MNU), which is government-run and in 2011 accounted for 45% of total tertiary education enrolments (DNP, 2012). Generally, the sector delivers programmes ranging from one year diplomas to four year honours degrees and two year Masters programmes (UNESCO-IBE, 2011). In terms of trends in student numbers, a positive pattern has emerged at this early stage of tertiary education in the Maldives. Compared to the statistics in 2010, there was a considerable increase in enrolment numbers and graduate outputs in 2011, both of which increased by more than 60% and 50% respectively (see Figure 8). This trend should continue in order to be at par with other comparable countries (see Figure 3, p. 25 above). At the same time, a concern has to be raised at the sharp increase in dropouts, which amounted to a threefold increase to 1,591 students in 2011.<\/p>\n

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1.3 Resource Input<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

In terms of resource input into education, in 2009 the Maldives spent a relatively large percentage of its GDP (7.8%) on education, significantly higher than its 2008 spending as a percentage of GDP (see Figure 9). However, the World Bank (2012) reports that more recently the expenditure has been decreasing overall. Compared to 2008, 2011 saw a sharp fall of the total public expenditure on education by 12% to 1,098 Million Rufiyaa. This may present a challenge to any improvements in education, for instance in tackling the low participation in higher secondary education described earlier.<\/p>\n

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Teachers form an important part of the state input into education. The Maldives had a student-teacher ratio of 12:1 in 2011 (DNP, 2012), which is amongst the world\u2019s lowest ratios (World Bank, 2012). One reason for this is because many island communities are small and have small student populations. Based on the figures in 2011 (DNP, 2012), amongst this pool of teachers 15% were untrained and there has been a significant reliance on expatriate teachers (31%), especially in secondary education (61%). In primary schools, altogether 371 (10%) teachers were expatriates. The World Bank (2012) argues that this creates issues such as students being taught by those who have limited knowledge about local needs, contexts and culture. This situation is also the case in the rural communities where the expatriate teachers take up 33% of posts.<\/p>\n

Reference<\/strong><\/h3>\n