Education Minister Dr. Ismail Shafeeu has said that with the rise in the number of students failing to attend school, principals have been directed to take action against non-attendance without a justifiable reason.
In today's parliament sitting, Milandhoo MP Hassan Mufeed pointed out that the ministry has flagged an increase in students failing to attend school, and asked the minister for details of what action the ministry is taking against this.
In response, the minister said that if students fail to attend school, the reasons for this must be monitored.
"For example, a student may fail to attend school... I'm not talking about when they are sick or down with the flu... it is not acceptable for students to continuously miss school for any reason," the minister said.
Shafeeu said that he had met with school principals last week, directed them to look into reasons behind students missing school and to take appropriate action in such cases.
He noted that the strictest action against school avoidance was taken under the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) administration. At the time, strong efforts were taken to identify students missing school without justifiable reason, and to encourage their return to classrooms. However, a major setback was seen again after the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) came to power again, and the monitoring mechanism significantly weakened, Shafeeu alleged.
"There is an attendance policy. But what happens in this is, schools have to report this many students are being absent. There are specified periods: 3 days, 10 days, long absenteeism is considered 10 days. If a student misses school for three consecutive days, it has to be reported. At the time, this information was being promptly shared with the ministry," Shafeeu said.
However, work conducted in July this year identified rising absenteeism in schools, Shafeeu stated, emphasizing that school attendance must be reported by schools daily.
The minister reiterated that the ministry would not allow any student to continue failing to attend school.
At the launching of the Key Stage 3 2025 National Assessment of Learning Outcomes Report last Thursday, the minister raised concerns about the rising rate of absenteeism in schools.
He stated that absenteeism is markedly rising during the World Cup days and raised concerns that there are at present about 8000 students failing to regularly attend school, of which 40 percent is in the Male' region.
