The students of Dharumavantha School will be moved to the new building next week, and the students of Arabiyya School will be moved to the old Dharumavantha School building temporarily, according to the Ministry of Education.
A parent on the Executive Committee (ExCo) team of Dharumavantha School told Mihaaru News today that the Ministry has asked to vacate the temporary building before Thursday.
However, parents do not want to change schools suddenly in the middle of the academic year and when the mock examinations for grades 8, 9, and 10 have started, he said.
"We have gone and taken a look at the new building. We do not want to hastily shift to a place where the compound or hall is not complete," the parent said.
The contract for the construction of the new building was first signed with SJ Construction on February 4, 2020. The project was awarded MVR 74.9 million to be completed within one year.
However, due to problems with the school blueprint, an additional MVR 20 million agreement was signed in August 2022 to complete the finishing works according to the agreement within 150 days.
The Ministry's initial plan was to start using one block of the new building on Wednesday, but there were a lot of delays in its completion. Therefore, SJ Construction completed the work on one of the blocks and handed it over to the Ministry.
When the parents inquired about the opening date of the school, the management told them it would open for the new academic year. However, the Ministry later changed the decision.
The ExCo member said that despite the fact that the students of Dhrumavantha School have been studying in a temporary building for the past seven years, the government has not made any effort to expedite the construction of the new building.
"We have waited all these days. Even the Ministry says that the most cooperative parents are from Dharumavantha School. But we will not be silent any longer," he said.
The member said Arabiyya School parents had also gone to look at the building after the Ministry issued the order to clear the premises.
A parent from Arabiyya School told Mihaaru News that the Ministry has informally said that the temporary building will be provided to Arabiyya School students.
The Ministry said it did not know when the building will be issued to Arabiyya School, according to the parent.
"The new building of Dharumavantha is better than Arabiyya Schools current location," he said.
The Arabiyya School building, which was opened eight years ago, has been severely cracked and damaged. Since January last year, the students have been studying temporarily in the former Foreign Ministry building.
However, the condition of the facility is not good, according to parents. The Ministry of Education could not be reached for comment.
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