Implication of mid year school holidays

The start of the academic calendar was changed to mid-year from 2021, which came coupled with rough weather. Parents along with teachers raised concerns over the difficulties faced in travelling inter-atoll for medical and other purposes. Unfortunately, this year’s holiday also coincided with bad weather.

The two weeks following the end of the academic calendar 2022, was stormy with travel alerts in place. Islanders were forced to go under weather-related lockdown with limited things to do. Twitter and Facebook were flooded with concerns over the weather. The new academic year is set to commence on August 7th, 2022.

Ali Musthafa, a parent posted on Facebook, "We are not complaining because we are not able to do fun activities as it is the holidays. We cannot go for compulsory medical purposes to the capital too, which is more pressing". Although the academic year was changed with consent from the majority of parents and educational systems, he feels it is not a good idea.

Other concerned parents also agreed that the monsoon season is not a good time to have academic year-end holidays.

Another citizen, Hudha Abdul Samad mentioned, ‘ Changing the academic year to June/July is a big hassle for parents and teachers within the atolls. Anybody living in the Maldives would know that this is not an ideal time to have holidays.’

"A waste of a holiday", some comment.

The government's decision on starting the academic year in June/July was based generally on the tourism industry. But the lines are blurred in the diversification of tourism in the Maldives as it is difficult to pinpoint when it is off season and when it’s peak season. Locals went on social media saying whether the decision on school holidays is solely the rights of parents working at resorts.

The support given for this decision was lesser in comparison. Hameed Saha, a tourism industry worker mentioned,’ "I have never had this much of an opportunity to spend ample time with my children within the 14 years I’ve worked in the industry. Previous years I’d usually get around 7 days at most, to spend time with them during the long holidays."

The Logical Maldivian, a page with 78k plus likes and 112k plus followers took a poll regarding the best time to start the academic year which resulted in most disagreeing with the change. Out of the 403 people who voted, 339 people were against June/July holidays while 63 people voted positively.

The onset of Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, aligned as the right time to make the change in the school system. Deputy Minister for the Education Ministry, Ahmed Mujaahidh was quoted as saying, "The previous five years weather patterns were diligently monitored in collaboration with the Met office. Looking at the findings we cannot concur that starting the academic year in June/July is reason for concern".