Status of Education in the Maldives
By 2002, the Maldives achieved universal primary education for grades 1-7 and 97 percent literacy rates among men and women. Efforts are now underway to decentralize the education system and reorganize the island nation. A renewed emphasis on the quality of education is taking shape as is expanding accessibility to education on even the remotest islands, some of which are only accessible by multi-day boat trips. Currently, lower secondary schools (grades 8-10) are located on 138 islands and higher secondary schools (grades 11-12) are only available on 14 islands. The official and common language is Dhivehi, which is related to Sinhala, a language of Sri Lanka. English is used widely in commerce and increasingly as the medium of instruction in government schools.
Current Focus
Books for Asia is ramping up donations to the Maldives to include 10,000-20,000 new books. Via the National Library, Books for Asia aims to distribute books to many more primary and secondary schools in Male and outlying islands to develop a strong reading culture and improve curriculum development and teaching standards. University level textbooks will also be provided to the Maldives College of Higher Education, the only public degree-granting institution on the island.
Project and Partner Highlights
The National Library of Maldives. With additional support from Books
for Asia and training from the Sri Lankan Library Association, the
National Library will strengthen its role in the country as an advocate
for strong library systems and resources to the general public,
teachers, researchers, and policy makers.
Major publisher donors: John Wiley & Sons, Pearson, Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt, Lynne Rienner, W.W. Norton & Company, and Island
Press.
Contact
Anton Nallathamby , Books for Asia Director (Sri Lanka)
anallathamby@asiafound.org
Sharmini Nagendran, Program Officer (Sri Lanka)
snagendran@asiafound.org