The academic year was shifted during the former government despite resistance from 70 percent of the population, Education Minister Dr. Ismail Shafeeu has said.
Replying to a question by a member of the Parliament at Tuesday's parliament session, the Minister said he was of the opinion that the change brought to the traditional January academic year schedule had more drawbacks than benefits.
The minister disclosed that the Education Ministry had a data set from 30,000 individuals regarding the academic year change.
"Of these, 69 percent, 70 percent preferred to keep the term from January to December as it was previously," Dr. Ismail noted.
Minister Ismail said teachers and students do not want changes to the academic calendar.
The minister cited two main reasons for the initial change in the academic year: adjustments necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic and aligning the budget year with the academic year. While acknowledging the effective handling of the pandemic by the previous administration, Dr. Shafeeu said that the pandemic resulted in a setback of six months in the academic year, affecting around 6,000 to 7,000 students in six or seven grades.
Minister Ismail said under the current efforts to revert the academic year to the traditional January start, the academic year will not be changed abruptly but will be phased over five semesters.
"Cambridge has a certain amount of guided learning hours for studying a subject. So when bringing this change, we ensured that it does not violate Cambridge's allocated guided learning hours," Ismail explained.
The minister reassured that despite the adjustments, the Maldives' education system would offer more guided learning hours compared to the Cambridge curriculum.
The minister acknowledged concerns from the public regarding students' health, exercise, and other activities when the academic year is shifted back. He said the activities were not previously planned by the education ministry under a robust system, and that over 140 competitions were being held by the ministry in a year.
“This affects the mental health of teachers and leaves them tired and exhausted,” the minister said.
