Maldives presidential candidate Ibra To “Throw Away The Curriculum”

Presidential candidate Ibrahim Ismail (Ibra) on Sunday attacked the current administration over what he said was a series of education “failures”.

Noting a 5 per cent pass rate in GCSE O-level English in 2005, Ibra – who worked in the education sector for 20 years – claimed education policy and the curriculum in the country had “not changed...since the 1980s”.

Education has been a key campaign platform of incumbent President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who frequently cites the country’s 98 per cent literacy rate.

“Failures”

At Ibra’s Social Liberal Party policy launch at the Dharubaaruge conference centre on Sunday night, he pledged to “throw away the curriculum”, increasing both Islamic and liberal arts provision.

Under current teaching, “children learn to be failures,” he contends.

A Liberal Party government would increase expenditure on education by three to seven per cent, partly financed by introducing corporate tax, he announced.

Like other presidential candidates, he added he would also raise funds by cutting costs from the presidential palace, which currently takes up US $13 million of state funds yearly.

Extra revenue would enable Maldivian schools – most of which currently teach in two or even three shifts each day – to change to single-shift schooling, according to Ibra.

“In this [existing] system, a class size is 35 and each class lasts 35 minutes,” he said.

Teachers

Ibra appealed to the country’s 7,000 teachers with promises of a pay rise, after 1,500 of them held a one-day strike in July over pay.

Receiving no promise of a salary increase from the government, the teachers’ association resolved after the strike that members would express their anger at the ballot box.

But teaching standards must also improve, according to Ibra, who said that whilst 31 per cent of the teachers are degree holders, only 3.3 per cent of those are Maldivians.

“[Government’s] belief was that preschool teachers do not need a degree,” he said.

He pledged to raise teaching standards by providing scholarship schemes for diploma and degree courses in education.

“By the end of five years, 70 per cent of the Maldivian teachers will have degrees,” he promised.

Numbers

The Maldives’ 98 per cent literacy rate is one of the world’s highest, but only 2 per cent of Maldives’ school students proceed to A-level, according to the Ministry of Planning.

The 2007 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) report by the Ministry of Planning, in collaboration with United Nations agencies, found that 80 per cent of schools “lack basic teaching and learning facilities”.

The MDG report notes 95 per cent of those who sat the GCSE O-Level English examination in 2005 failed the examination, 3 per cent more than in the previous two years.

“When students are failing at this rate, everyone must be held accountable,” Ibra said.

Contenders

President Gayoom’s running mate Ahmed Thasmeen Ali said at the Dhivehi Raiyyithunge Party (DRP) campaign launch: “25 years ago there were only a few people who had the opportunity to go to school, but today 90 per cent can read and write.”

But former president Ibrahim Nasir has also been credited with improving educational standards.

In 1977, the year before Gayoom came to power, literacy stood at 81.6 per cent, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Gayoom’s rival presidential candidates – who now number seven ahead of the country’s first multi-party presidential polls – argue educational standards remain inadequate.

Presidential candidate Dr. Hassan Saeed in February pledged a laptop for every school pupil, saying he would raise funds via public-private partnerships.


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