The Minister of Education, Higher Education and Skills Development Dr. Ismail Shafeeu has expressed concern due to students spending a vast amount of time in tuition at home after spending six hours in school.

While speaking at the "High Achievers' Award 2025" award ceremony this morning, the minister said that students from all grades have to become more responsible when it comes to learning.

He went on to say that while he is proud of the students' results, there needs to be thought put into how it can be further improved, and that if everyone works together, the students' results will be much better than what it is now.

"While we are proud of the results, we have to wonder whether this is the best result we can achieve. I believe that if everyone works together, a better result can be achieved," said the minister.

In order to achieve such a result, the most important factor Minister Ismail highlighted was to make students more responsible when it comes to learning. The minister stated that students need to become more interested in their subjects, and seek information on their own, go over the information and think about it, while working to learn the subjects as well. He also said that this will result in the development of their learning techniques.

"To achieve this, the most important thing I would like to highlight is for students to become more responsible in their learning efforts. Interest needs to increase. In reality, if their interest increases and if they take responsibility in learning on their own, their mentality and techniques needed for learning subjects will develop."

The minister said scholarly research shows that students who are responsible for learning on their own and look into matters by themselves are those who are more likely to continue learning.

"This is something that I feel must be encouraged on all levels."

He went on to say that Maldives' tuition culture is quite cemented, and they have been receiving information that students have been spending four or six hours in tuition at home after the six hours they spend at school.

While underlining that the number of students who go to tuition like that are quite high, the minister said that spending time like that is something that needs to be thought about. He said that it will also affect the mental health of the children.

Minister Ismail continued, stating that students need to be involved in sports in their free time, and to encourage them to do what makes them happy and in managing their time as well.

"We have settled into a tuition culture, where students go home after spending six hours at school. After they get home, most children spend between four to six hours in tuition," said the Education Minister in a concerned tone.

As per the minister, students will need help from outside the school as well. However, the help needs to be offered in such a way their participation in the subjects taught in school are not lost, said the minister.

"I would like to point out with this opportunity that students will need help from beyond the school. However, the help needs to be given in such a way their participation in the subjects taught in school are not lost. We need to help children understand that they need to pay attention to the subjects taught in school classrooms."

And so, the minister encouraged students to become more responsible in their learning. Students who take the initiative in learning are those who learn through self-research, and that retention goes up to 75 percent in such students, said the minister. He also said that research has shown if students become dependent on people, the retention rate is much lower.

He appealed to parents and students to think on this and if not, tuition culture will further be ingrained.