Low pass rates failing O-Level target, minister bemoans
According to the World Bank, about 4 years are wasted in schools due to the poor quality of education in Maldives.
By
Aminath Shifleen
Education Minister Dr Ismail Shafeeu said on Tuesday that the target set for the O-level exams is to increase the number of students that pass in five subjects to 65%, but the target has not been reached.
The World Bank too has noted that the biggest challenge to people's development and people building in Maldives is the poor quality of education in the island nation.
The World Bank's annual Human Capital Index (HCI) calculated Maldives's HCI for the first time and reported:
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On average, students in Maldives study for 12.4 years
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However, in terms of educational level, it is equivalent to 8.17 years of education
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Therefore, about 4 years are wasted in schools due to the poor quality of education in the country
The World Bank noted that Maldives's HCI score was most affected by the country's poor education level.
The Minister of Education was questioned in Parliament on Tuesday about the World Bank's observations.
In response to the question by Ungoofaaru MP Mohammed Waheed, the minister also expressed concern about the education results.
Shafeeu said that although an international curriculum has been taught at a universal level in Maldives, there is still a lot of work to be done to improve the quality of education. The minister highlighted the failure to reach the set O-level target.
"In fact, the pass rate in five subjects should be above 65% but it has not reached that level in real terms. That is something we know if we look at the data alone, although the World Bank did not mention it," he said.
The results will have a negative impact on the students’ academic performance, and is a matter of great concern, he said.
“This is something that needs to be worked on at the national level,” he said.
Although the O-level target has not been reached, Maldives has made progress in education compared to other countries in the region, he said. As such, he said:
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Maldives is one of the few countries in Asia that offers an international curriculum at a universal level
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There are few countries in the region that offer an international curriculum for both O-level and A-level
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Maldives was the first country in the region to achieve the Universal Goal of Primary Education, and there still are countries in this region that have not achieved it
Despite the decline in the overall results of O-level and A-level examinations, the number of students achieving top results is increasing year by year. Maldivian students are among the top ten in the world every year, which signifies that the learners are intelligent, and the system is failing them.
