Dharavandhoo seeking Islam Teacher for over a year

Ministry of Education has stated that no Islam teacher has been found for Baa Atoll School in Dharanvandhoo despite announcing vacancies for the position for a period of one year.

The previous secondary grades' Islam teacher of the school retired in late 2022. Since then, the school has been seeking a replacement.

An announcement seeking an Islam teacher for this position was first published on December 23, 2022.

"We have not been able to find an Islam teacher despite multiple attempts at finding one. We could not even get a teacher from that island [Dharanvandhoo]," a Ministry official said.

Baa Atoll School Principal Nazneen Abdulla Didi said that due to the unavailability of a teacher, Islam lessons are currently conducted online by teachers from Huravee School.

"We give them lessons through satellite school. The second batch is going for O'Levels now. They are completing school without having had an Islam teacher. We teach them online. The results are good," she said.

Principal's concerns over scarcity of Islam, Dhivehi teachers

Although lessons are currently being conducted online, Nazneen highlighted the difficulties faced in trying to find subject teachers for Dhivehi and Islam.

"Even if a teacher wants to come and live here, it is difficult to rent a place and settle down here as living standard is high. It is due to reasons like this that we are not getting teachers," she opined.

The Principal also noted that although, as a temporary solution, lessons are being provided online, parents do not believe this to be an acceptable solution.

"We even approached Male' schools [to find Islam teachers]. To try and coordinate with candidates who remain after they have selected teachers for their schools. But none of the teachers were willing to come," she said.

As teaching courses cannot be undertaken online, the school decided to deliberate with the Island's council to explore solutions. The Principal said that discussions were held to send interested candidates to complete courses in teaching Dhivehi and Islam, funded by the council. However, no action has been taken on the matter to date.

Currently, a teacher trained by the school is teaching secondary grades in Dharavandhoo School. The results were also found to be positive.

"The current teacher was actually the teacher for primary grades. When the previous secondary teacher resigned, we, from the school, trained and transferred this teacher to secondary grades," she said.

She believes that the long term solution for the issue is to offer an additional allowance for teachers willing to relocate to islands.

The previous government had given an allowance of MVR 7000 to teachers who moved to island schools, but this was discontinued after teacher salaries were increased.