Research & Policy Papers

The Declining Quality of Education in Maldivian Higher Secondary Schools

A policy brief on poor student engagement and the widening gap between Malé and the atolls.

2025-04-01

Report To: Dr Ismail Shafeeu, Minister of Education; and Dr Maryam Mariya, Minister of Higher Education, Labour and Skills Development

Authored By: Ibrahim Muan Abdulla, Policy Advisor

Executive Summary

With the growing disparity between the capital Malé and the atolls in the allocation of critical resources, and the quality of education, the country is observing a rapid decline in the number of students enrolled in higher secondary education and beyond. With fewer than 45 percent of students continuing their schooling into higher secondary education, it is a result of the lack of education facilities in the islands and the declining quality of teachers and education in the country (Ministry of Education, 2022). The recent Human Capital Index report by the World Bank indicated that a child born in the Maldives would have a 59.6 percent of reaching their potential by the age of 18 having completed their education in full health in the country (World Bank, 2024). This is a lower average compared to any other upper-middle-income nation and any small island state, with severe implications for the sustainability and the socio-economic growth of the population of the nation (World Bank, 2024).

Issue Background

Issue Context

The Republic of Maldives is a small island state, of 1190 islands stretching over 26 naturally occurring coral atolls in the Indian Ocean. The geographical isolation arising from the disbursement of islands is one of the greatest challenges for the Maldives. The severe geographical dispersion of the islands in the Maldives poses challenges in providing equitable and cost-effective provision of basic services and resources including access to education. In the latest census conducted in 2022, the Maldives Bureau of Statistics (2022), reported that with a population of 382,639 Maldivians, the country recorded a literacy rate of 98.6 percent in the local language ‘Dhivehi’ and a literacy rate of 82.6 percent in the English language amongst people above the age of 10 years (Maldives Bureau of Statistic, 2022). While such a feat cannot be understated, the fact remains that the education system of the Maldives is currently facing severe challenges with a decline in the quality of education and poor engagement and retention of students in higher secondary education.

Current Education System

The current education system of the Maldives is built upon the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) introduced in 2003 dividing the 14 years of education into four phases with six key stages (Shiyama, 2020). The first phase–foundation/pre-primary–consists of Lower Kindergarten (LKG) and Upper Kindergarten (UKG) for children between the ages of four and six. The second phase–primary– is divided into two key stages; key stage one from grades one to three; and key stage two from grades four to six (Ministry of Education and Ministry of Higher Education, 2019). Students in the Maldives currently study under a local national curriculum through the first three key stages of their education. However, once students move onto key stages three and four–lower secondary–from grades seven to ten, students switch to a British curriculum, doing their O’Level (Ordinary Level) examinations in year 10. The final key stage five–higher secondary–from grades 11 to 12 has A’Levels (Advanced Level) examinations under the British curriculum (Sodiq and Di Biase, 2022).

Student Enrolment Retention in Higher Secondary

With over 94,000 students enrolled at different stages of education, this accounts for almost a third of the population actively pursuing an education (Ministry of Education, 2022). However, the enrollment numbers among the different key stages greatly vary. From foundation to key stages one through four, student enrollment is over 90 percent (Ministry of Education and Ministry of Higher Education, 2019). At key stage five, however, student enrollment severely drops to 45 percent (Maldives Bureau of Statistics, 2022).

The severe drop in enrolment at key stage five is partly due to students who opt for alternative pathways, enrolling at TVET programs. While these programs received support from many students, enrolment in BTECH stands at 500 students, and 844 students in the ‘Dhasvaaru’ program in 2018, which is still a significantly lower number of students enrolments compared to key stages one through four (Sodiq and Di Biase, 2022). Nevertheless, the number of students enrolled in key stages one and two is over 22,000, and over 13,000 students enrolled in key stages three and four failed to be retained in key stage five with enrolment numbers at a mere 3,411 students (Ministry of Education, 2022).

Quality of Education

The geographical dispersion of islands in the Maldives is one of the limiting factors preventing the full implementation of the NCF, thereby increasing disparity between the the quality of education accessible in the islands and the capital Malé. While all government schools operating in Malé and the atolls operate from grades one to ten, these schools do not offer the opportunity for higher secondary education. The lack of higher secondary and tertiary education in the atolls further increases the disparity between students in Malé and students in atolls (UNICEF, 2018).

Students getting their education in Malé have been recorded to complete three additional years of school compared to students in atolls (UNDP, 2014). The examination pass rates in Malé have also been recorded to be close to double compared to pass rates from atolls (UNICEF, 2018). In addition, the quality of teachers plays a dominant role in maintaining the quality of education students receive. The Maldives has a significant proportion of 23 percent of untrained teachers in the workforce (Maldives Bureau of Statistics, 2023). In addition to untrained teachers, of the 10,615 teachers in the workforce, 20 percent of the teachers in the Maldives are currently expatriate teachers (Maldives Bureau of Statistics, 2023). The poor quality of teachers and in turn education is reflected in 40 percent of students in grades four and seven failing to pass their exams (UNICEF, 2018).

Implication

The World Bank recently released a report on Maldives Human Capital Review (HCR), which measures the Human Capital Index (HCI) to capture the country’s health and education outcomes. The report highlights that while a Maldivian child is expected to complete their schooling in 12.4 years, a child only receives 8.17 years of learning, implying 4.32 years of learning lost due to the low quality of education (World Bank, 2024). In addition, the low quality of education, coupled with the disparity between Malé and the atolls a child born in Malé is expected to achieve 64 percent of their potential, while a child born into a central region has 54 percent of achieving their potential and an even lower average for children born in other islands (World Bank, 2024).

The disparity in resources, quality of education, teachers, and fewer years of schooling are key contributing factors to the lower number of students who complete and achieve success in secondary education. The impact of fewer years of schooling and lower levels of education will severely hinder the socioeconomic development of the population and increase the barriers to employment (Maldives Bureau of Statistics, 2022; Sodiq and Di Biase, 2022). As a result of the disparity in the quality and success of education between Malé and the many atolls, the current education system serves as a process of selection rather than inclusion, given the number of students who do not engage and can succeed in the current system

Policy Context

No Child Left Behind

The Maldives which follows a ‘No Child Left Behind’ policy, places a heavy importance on the right to education for all children. The Education Act which was ratified in 2020, highlights “that every child between the ages of four and sixteen living in the Maldives is required to complete compulsory education” (Ministry of Education, 2020). To minimize the barriers to entry into education, the Maldivian government provides free primary and secondary education (UNDP, 2014). While it is compulsory for children under the age of 16 to be enrolled in schools, the Education Act does not make higher secondary education compulsory. Nevertheless, the Act states that it is the responsibility of the state to ensure “adequate resources and opportunities for an inclusive preschool, primary secondary and higher secondary education” are available; and that “every child is enrolled in an educational or skill development programme until the age of 18” (Ministry of Education, 2020). Unfortunately, these responsibilities of the state are failing to be met with little to no opportunities to pursue higher secondary education or other vocational training in most islands out of the capital.

Professional Development of Teachers

To improve the quality of education in the country, there is a desperate need to train and equip teachers with the resources and knowledge to teach. Since 2009 the Ministry of Education has put into action a professional development (PD) policy known as School Based Professional Development (SBPD) to improve the quality of teachers (Biase, 2016). The policy required three days set out in the academic calendar for teachers to undertake at least 15 hours of school-based PD activities each year (Shareef, 2011). Farrugia and Attard (1989), state that given the highly personalized nature of small island states, the Maldivian culture requires the establishment of relationships to a personal degree of care to provide adequate training to teachers. As such, any PD program requires high flexibility and to be built on the personalized requirement of teachers to be effective (Saeed and Moreira, 2010).

Stakeholders

Teachers: With a significant portion of expatriate teachers in the Maldivian education system, it is observed that there is low motivation among teachers and the country is becoming a hub for expatriate teachers to gain experience before moving to other locations (Ministry of Education and Ministry of Higher Education, 2019).

School Managements: Principals of schools in atolls have reported difficulty in communication with the Ministry of Education concerning flexibility and adaptation of national education policies and curriculum to special circumstances and local contexts in the islands which have hindered the implementation of the education curriculum and policies (Biase, 2016).

Local Councils: Local councils of islands with low populations and a lack of basic services are requesting relocation options to islands in the central region. Ismail Nihad, President of M.Raiymandhoo Council has presented a petition with 114 signatories out of 239 people to the central government requesting relocation to RasMalé citing a lack of employment opportunities and the only school in the island teaching up to grade 6 (MV+ News Desk, 2024). Earlier in the year, a similar request from HDh.Hirimandhoo Council was lodged with the Local Government Authority (LGA).

International Organisations and NGOs: The Maldives receives a significant portion of its funding in the education sector from foreign bodies including the World Bank, Unicef, and UNDP. The Maldives Atoll Education Development Project with $10 million in financial aid from the World Bank seeks to improve the quality of education in atolls (World Bank, 2022).