President Mohamed Nasheed has made changes to the board of the Maldives Entertainment Company Limited.
Accordin to Haveeru, the new chairperson is Mariyam Waheedha, of Galolhu Hilman.
Other members of the board are Abdulla Shafeeq, Mohamed Imad, Haasan Zareeru, Ahmed Asif and Ahmed Fahud.
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(0)The ministry of education has revealed that they are focusing on introducing vocational subjects into the syllabus at 101 schools in 2010.
The vocational subjectswill include trade-specific skills such as computer hardware, electrical wiring, cooking, baking and hospitality.
“We believe technical vocation subjects are important, and they have worked in other countries as well,” said Education Minister Dr Mustafa Luthufy.
“Some of the courses have a small fee because we need to bring in specialists from that particular area, but we are working to instill skills in the teachers so that they may take these classes,” he added.
Education standards in the country had slipped, he confessed, revealing that UNESCO would be conducting a one and a half year research project to find out the cause of the slip.
“Some of the things they will be looking into include how children are being taught, the relationship between teachers and parents and the teacher training syllabus,” Luthufy said.
He said the ministry also planned to “align the education system closer to Islam” by training more teachers in Islamic studies and the Quran, Luthufy said, in the hopes of “instilling religious spirit in students.”
Waning student interest in science was another concern, said Deputy Education Minister Dr Abdullah Nazeer.
“We want to introduce science education into the atoll schools to improve critical thinking,” he said.
“We want to expand the streams available to schools in the atolls, At the moment the O level and A level is dominated by the commerce stream.”
The ministry also announced plans to privatise more schools, introduce more foreign languages and train more Maldivian teachers.
(0)Dislikes(0)The permanent secretaries of government ministries, responsible for filling in the salary sheets, have become collateral damage in the scrap between the finance ministry and the Civil Service Commission (CSC).
The CSC has ordered permanent secretaries to submit the sheets with salaries at the levels prior to the government’s reductions in October, while the finance ministry has threatened legal action against any civil servants who fill in the salary sheets according to the restored amount.
”We are very disappointed and we do not know what to do now,” said the permanent secretary of the home ministry, Maryam Waheeda.
Waheeda said she had submitted the salary sheet according to the restored amount yesterday, as instructed by the CSC, but the finance ministry had sent it back.
”We cannot do anything against the CSC,” she said. “In this situation when the CSC and the finance ministry are disputing our salary, we the civil servants are worried and wonder how this is going to end.”
The permanent secretary of the trade ministry Yousuf Riza said he had submitted the ministry’s salary sheet both ways, ”how the finance ministry have said, and how the CSC has said.”
“The finance ministry will have to decide which sheet they will accept,” he said.
The permanent secretary of ministry of tourism arts and culture, Ahmed Solih said he had “not yet decided” how he would be making out the salary sheet.
Haveeru reported that the permanent secretary of the defense ministry had been sent home for trying to fill in the salary sheet according to the restored amount, while Ismail Shafeeq, the permanent secretary in perhaps the most contentious position – the finance ministry – would only hint that he had filled in the sheet “as I was told to.”
Asked by who, he replied mysteriously: “the one who told me”.
Meanwhile independent MP Mohamed Nasheed called a press conference and claimed “it is not the duty of the finance ministry to restore, deduct or increase the salary of civil servants.”
“The civil servants’ salary has to processed according to how the CSC instructs,” he said. It it is a right of the finance ministry to go to the court if they have disputes, they should not have to spread circulars saying [civil servants] cannot accept the restored salary.”
Regarding the government’s announcement that it would asked the parliament to arbitrate the dispute, he said the Majlis “was not a government institute from which to get legal advice.”
The civil servants are staging a protest tonight at 8:30 pm near the tsunami monument to protest against the finance ministry for not restoring their salary.
(0)Dislikes(0)Seven members of the Maldives Police Service who arrested a wayward goat on the streets of Male yesterday morning have found themselves unwitting filmstars after the incident was filmed by a passerby.
The video footage, which appeared on the internet this morning in the form of a short film called ‘Black Goat Dawn’, showed two police attempting to tie the distressed creature’s legs together before throwing it into van.
The goat escaped police clutches several times, to the amusement of bystanders, slipping its cords and bolting for freedom amid shrieks from alarmed females.
The two officers called for backup, and eventually a squad of seven police, including several motorcycles and a paddy wagon, were able to apprehend the terrified creature and stow it in the van.
“We took the goat to the police tow yard and later found the owner, who said they’d brought it for a friend,’ said a bemused Inspector Shiyam.
(0)Dislikes(0)The ministry of health has announced it has raised the H1N1 swine flu alert level from four to six.
Despite the counterintuitive increase, alert level six is when the danger of the disease goes down and the risk of it spreading also decreases.
Dr Ibrahim Yasir, director general of health services, said “The disease has not spread in the way we predicted it might. We expected the disease to spread [more] with the start of the academic year and people returning from abroad.”
He said the spread of the disease had been controlled by the hard work of people in the health sector, “the priority given to the pandemic by the government and the awareness of the public.
“Since we didn’t see an increase in the spread of the disease we decided it didn’t warrant a level five alert status,” he said.
The ministry announced that with the level six status many, of the H1N1 precautions would be lifted.
Dr Ahmed Jamsheed Mohamed from the Centre of Disease Control said “Our warnings about not to gather in public places have been lifted, and places like KudaKudhinge Bageecha (children’s park) can now be opened.
“Our swine flu clinic is closing as hardly anyone who goes there any more, and the 24-hour hotline is also being closed.”
Jamsheed said lifting the precautions “does not mean we have to stop being vigilant. There is still a possibility that the disease could spread.”
Next step
The ministry announced that it would now divert its resources towards preparing for the next outbreak.
“We have 120,000 people who have been classified as a prioirty group to receive swine flu vaccines,” Dr Yasir said.
According to the ministry, vaccine doses promised to the Maldives so far include 20,000 from Saudi Arabia, 30,000 from the World Health Organisation (WHO), 15,000 from China, 1500 from Singapore and 50,000 from the government’s own budget.
“The Chinese doses have not been approved by the WHO yet so we are keeping that on hold for the moment,” Jamsheed noted.
(0)Dislikes(0)Baa atoll committee has budgeted half a million Rf for educational projects and development, reports Haveeru.
The total is more than double the amount the committee spent last year, Haveeru noted.
The Baa atoll committee has assets of more than Mf 2.9 million, and has previously funded a powerhouse, harbour projects and educational centres.
(0)Dislikes(0)Korean Air announced this week it will operate 24 direct flights under charter four times a week between Incheon and the Maldives.
The flights will run from April 25 to June 4 and reduce the travel time from its current 15 hours to nine.
Korea is an increasingly important pool of tourists for the Maldives, particularly for honeymooners.
(0)Dislikes(0)Assalaamu alaikum,
I would like Minivan News to play the intermediary role to get the attention of the Islamic Ministry regarding the following issue.
As to my knowledge, women were encouraged to go to mosques by the last Prophet Muhammadh Sallallahu Wasallam and I am sure that the Minister and others would agree.
My concern is that women who like to go to mosques for Friday prayers do not have much choice now. Since the Ministry so honorably conducted Friday Prayers for men and women after the last solar eclipse, I wish that they would conduct the same for the Fridays which follow.
Wassalaamu alaikum wa-rahmathullahi wabarakaathuhu.
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