Male city mayor has called on the authorities to look into the increase in violence among students after the recent attacks on students in the capital Male.
A group had forced their way into Thaajuddeen school in the capital Male on Tuesday before another student was assaulted on the way to Dharumavantha school on Wednesday.
Police said the second student was attacked on the street with a sharp object and the victim had been rushed to the privately-run ADK hospital in Male. The extent of the injuries however, remain unclear.
Expressing grave concern over the attacks, mayor Shifa Mohamed insisted that the authorities must come up with better measures to ensure the safety of students.
"We're happy that police have managed to arrest the perpetrator of the first attack. But has so far remained tight-lipped over the second attack. Even last year a Thaajuddeen school student was attacked inside his own home," Shifa detailed.
Shifa pointed out that the number of students involved in gang violence have been on the rise. "Authorities need to find out why this is happening," Shifa urged.
"I really believe that the education minister would take the initiative to investigate these attacks. Schools generally have open access to the people. But there are way we can resolve this. And this cannot be resolved by the minister or the parents. The whole society needs to come together on this."
Many schools in the capital have asked parents to bring the parent card to be allowed inside the school. The parent card was introduced last year, but had not be enforced until now.
State education minister Ahmed Shafeeu told AVAS that parent cards were introduced last year to ensure the safety of students.
"We introduced the parent cards because sometimes students are picked up people other than a parent or a guardian. In such cases the schools can ask for the card. So we had asked schools to issue two parent cards to each student. I think they [schools] are enforcing it because of these incidents," Shafeeu explained.
