Izzuddin School's third floor was discovered to have a major crack, leading to speculations over the safety of the building. While the Education Ministry conducts a safety assessment, parents voice concerns of their children's safety.
Ministry of Education on Thursday announced that it will be carrying out a safety assessment on Izzuddin School's building to ensure that it is a safe environment for students after a giant crack was found on part of the building's third floor.
In light of the situation, several senior officials from the Ministry of Education and the school's management met with parents to discuss the matter.
Local media outlet 'Mihaaru News' spoke with Education Minister Dr Ismail Shafeeu, who said that school's structure is not in a very good condition, and that a survey is underway in collaboration with the Ministry of Construction and Infrastructure.
"Whether the school [building] can be fixed or not can be determined after the assessment," he said. "Our biggest priority is the safety and security of the students."
A parent who attended the meeting also spoke with Mihaaru News and revealed that the ministry's team said that using the building, which was used as the Malé English School (MES) 30 years ago, is not safe right now.
"The principal said that he came to know of the crack on last week's Thursday. The principal also said that the Education Minister visited and inspected the area after that," the parent told Mihaaru News.
Parents who attended the meeting said that the principal confirmed that two teams visited the site and declared the building unsafe for students.
However, the biggest concern of parents is that such an issue has come up just shortly after the new academic year commenced.
"Some parents say that there was a crack before as well. The [assumption is that the] crack grew larger in size. We believe that this should have been known earlier than this. [The school management] wouldn't have come to know of the poor quality of the building all of a sudden," one parent said.
As of right now, the school and Education Ministry's plan is to hold a series of meetings with the school's parents, with the first meeting being held yesterday.
"The person who spoke on behalf of the Education Ministry said today that if the school's teaching is relocated to another venue, it would be done with the school's management as well. They said that the teaching would still resume in one session as it is now," the parent further added.
According to the parents, Education Ministry informed them that the assessment report will be available after the upcoming Eid holidays.
Izzuddin School is the first school in Malé that started teaching students in a single session. While the school started teaching 10th grade students this year, the entire student population is over 600 as of right now.
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