1126 students transfer to Male' schools from islands

Ministry of Education has said today that 1126 students have transferred from schools in the atolls to schools located in the Male' area ahead of the new academic year set to commence tomorrow.

In the ministry's statement marking the beginning of the new academic year, they stated that a total of 2250 students have enrolled for Grade 1 in the Male' area.

Additionally, 2081 students applied for enrollment in Male' area schools for levels above Grade 1.

Transfer of students between Male' schools is at approximately a thousand, they said.

The new academic year is set to begin tomorrow, May 26, with 96,000 students. This includes 40,300 girls and 42,700 boys.

The Ministry said that 83,000 students are enrolled in 217 government schools, out of which about 17,000 are in Male' area schools.

Over 13,000 students are enrolled in private schools from lower kindergarten to Grade 12. Of these, more than 9000 are in the Male' area.

Teachers

Government schools are employing 12,662 teachers, including 10,729 Maldivians and 1,933 foreigners.

The Ministry has earlier said that a training programme for teachers will be commenced within the year, as well as efforts to reduce the number of hours teachers need to spend at school.

Sessions

The Ministry said that this academic year, 162 schools will be teaching in a single session, while 55 schools will still have morning and afternoon sessions.

Like the previous year, six schools in the atolls will be teaching through the use of satellites. These are Fehendhoo School, Fulhadhoo School, Kondey School, Rakeedhoo School, Vaavu Atoll Thinadhoo School and Alif Dhaalu Atoll Dhihdhoo School.

With the heavy rains and strong winds being experienced across the country in recent weeks, the Education Ministry has instructed all schools to shorten their sessions to be between two to three hours for the first three days of school.