The board of the girls-only ‘Aminiyya School’ have expressed concern over the Education Ministry’s decision to introduce grade 1 students to the school next year, claiming that the structural integrity of the building made it a danger to minors.
Ahmed Ali, a board member of the school, told Minivan News that the board members were concerned that the school building was “very old and weak”.
“The building is 32 years-old and was built with stones, it is very weak and if minors were brought in it would be very dangerous,’’ claimed Ahmed. “We have informed the education ministry several times about the condition of the building – last Sunday the whole board went for an urgent meeting with the ministry to discuss the issue.’’
The whole board, Ahmed said declined to bring minors to the school unless the building was renewed or refurbished to a strong condition and decided to resign if the ministry acted otherwise.
‘’The education ministry said there was nowhere elsewhere to keep the students,’’ said Ahmed.
The board also claimed it opposed the introduction of grade 1 students because of “social issues”.
“This is a school for females and some of them wear short skirts up to the knees,” said Ahmed. “If minors were brought in parents will have to come inside the school compound to fetch the students. If parents can come inside the schools compound, it won’t be only parents who will come in.’’
He claimed that other people would also come into the school “and harass the students.”
Deputy Minister for Education Dr Abdulla Nazeer said the ministry was aware of the concerns of the board.
“Their main concern was the building and it’s structural weaknesses,’’ said Dr Nazeer. “We have surveyed the building to determine its condition and have included the money needed to renew the building in our budget.’’
Dr Nazeer said when the parliament approves the budget, the project to renew the building will be commence.
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Why do you even publish this in minivan and get people to fight and create animosity over a black and white issue?
so, what this means is it's totally fine for tenth graders to get hurt rather than first graders? i don't understand this at all.
Equally, Mr Ahmed Ali.
Some of your students wear skirts up to the - OHMIGOSH KN- oh. Knee.
The fact that these hypothetical students are inside your school compound would automatically imply that they would also have to be outside the school at some point.. where they are just as likely to be harassed by the skirt-chasing 'others'.
If Mr.Ahmed Ali's problem is specifically the potential harassment of his students inside the school premises, this can easily be solved by hiring what the rest of the world knows as 'a couple of security guards'.
Having studied throughout my life in co-ed schools and universities (where people were generally free to wear what they want, and come and go as they please, I must say this option seems to have worked just fine)
Coming to 'Structural Integrity'.
Unless I'm mistaken, and the resignation
of the school board can magically breathe new life into the old building's structural integrity, I find this an odd argument.
When the best reasons that a school board can provide for its threats to quit is that its students wear skirts, one is allowed to say these are dishonest arguments - and the problem lies elsewhere.
If structure is weak little ones will contribute less weight, so what is the worry. As for child fetchers harassing the bigger girls, they should be sued in accordance with law. What about the other schools which have from grade 1 to 10? Why would harassment be more in Ameeniya than other other schools?
The project to repair the buildings of aminiyya and dharumavantha/majeedhiyaa is under way. They recently held a bid to find engineer(s) to supervise the works.
And i think they are ok with 8th grader getting hurt by falling building parts!
I can't believe that idiots like Ahmed Ali makes up the school board at Aminiya.
His views confirms that he is not fit to be a board member of any academic institution.
Ahmed Ali! resign immediatly from the school board. And with him, resign those members who support his view.
So for Mr Ahmed Ali its perfectly ok for 8,9,10 graders to get hurt if the building collapses but not for first graders to get hurt.
He seems a bit obsessed about the skirts also. Unless i am not mistaken the Aminiya students wear the same uniform outside as inside, they don't walk around in mini skirts inside do they?
So what is this stupid arguments about? The way Ahmed Ali's logic works i do think his resignation will be for the best, and if the rest of the board also has such stupid arguments the best thing they can do for Aminiya is to resign.
One of the oldest and most reputed schools Aminiya definetly does not deserve to have people like Ahmed Ali on their board.
The comment by board member...
“This is a school for females and some of them wear short skirts up to the knees,”
... is inappropriate and carries with it much implications.
i am in total agreement with Yaamyn's comment...
If such is the standards by the board, i think it will be best for the school, and it's students if they all did resign. Obviously the school board is pretty incompetent, irresponsible and unqualified in ensuring security & protections for ALL students.
Don't want to say I told you so, but the above commentators are perfectly right.
Don't get me wrong, I love kids but you'll collapse the building more easily and lose more with senior graders than 1st graders.
Also can't fathom where the issue about skirts can reasonably come into an old building structure.
Obviously, none of you have been subject to harassment, you have no idea how many perverts roam chaandhanee magu when aminiya girls are going home just to grope. Being victim to that when I was in school, I would hate it that in a closed building these people can come inside and have greater access to the girls.
Security guards can't do shit. I don't get it, exposure of 1st graders to possibly vile language of some/many teenagers in a school environment does not sound appealing.
And the building should be safe for all ages, but it becomes more dangerous with running little ones around who does not have the ability to identify dangerous areas.
So people, the concerns are real. But the school board resigning instead of fighting for the rights of the school is pretty pathetic.
Wud be great if he can first impliment a standard skirt size, if its already implimented, he shud first see if school girls adhere to the rules. If not dont open you mouth saying " some girls"
Next he will say some girls have sex at school and if parents are allowed inside, they may do it with guys posing as parents.
Duh! Get a life
The shorter the skirt the less weight the weak structures will have to support!
Minivan News has ommited the most important reason cited by school board regarding their refusal to introduce Grade 1.
The Ministry of Education wants to start the grade one classes in Block S. The Housing Ministry has carried out a survery & informed that no classes should be carried out in those buildings & they are too much damaged to repair & use even.
Thus, there is not sufficient class-rooms to hold Grade 1 classes.
This kind of selective journalism to distort the happenings in the country by the Minivan News is not a new thing.
May be the idea of introducing Gr 1 in Aminiyya, Majeediyya, Hiriya or Dharumavantha may not be a great idea. But the concern of the board is not so valid.
Old building: If this is a concern then it should be a concern for all those students who will be studying on this building. The age or grade will not make any difference when something goes wrong. If this is the boards concern not to introduce Gr:1 then it’s totally unreasonable.
Social issues: If the students are wearing short skirts up to the knees, this need to be addressed even though Gr:1 is introduced or not. Schools have certain rules and I am sure there will be a rule regarding the uniform and it will be same for all of the students. The school needs to uphold those rules and make sure those are implemented across the board equally. If they wear the uniforms according to the set rules, I feel this issue can be addressed. But if they don’t they will face these harassment issues even outside the school which is beyond the control of the school management.
The cancers raised by the board members of Aminiyya in this article are not so valid but there might be more serious issues which might rise due to this move.
One of my concern for this move is that the existing behaviour, language and etc. of the students in Aminiyya, Majeediyya, Hiriya or Dharumavantha. Those who joining to Gr:1’s are very young and very fast learners and what they may learn from the school environment may not be what we want them to learn. The age difference of their school mates and the way they behave in school might be a bad lesion for these young ones. Even now we face similar challenge in the primary schools when the age gap is much lower.
I believe us as individuals, parents or humans we should think about this before this is too late but then we need to come up with much solid reasons to do this or not to do this. We need to learn from the past and we need to learn from those who have done similar moves.
What the hell is wrong with the Education Ministry?!! I thought Dr. Mustafa was an able person for the job. But from recent trends in the policies that the ministry is pursuing it doesn't seem so. Don't we already have enough schools for young kids? Increasing the number of schools will not enhance the level of education of our youth. Seems like the policies are focused on quantity rather than quality! And look at Majeedhiya! They are going to build a bridge over a main street just to facilitate some extra class rooms for the students in a building across the street and which takes a few seconds to cross. If this bridge is built, it won't be too long before we hear about the fatalities caused by unruly students. Stop building this bridge immediately! And stop changing Aminiyya or any other secondary school to include primary education. Already we don't have enough resources to cope with the situation and unless we are in a position to do that, stop dreaming big! We don't have money left in the coffers, we are in debt, the country's economy is crawling and thanx to a bunch of stupid.....for damaging the reputation of our tourism industry which is the only source of income that we have. I guess ordinary people with some ability at maths and a common sense would fair better than these politicians. I thought I voted for a change. What a mess!!!
Yeah . Aminiya board please go ahead and resign. That would be a help for the community and the Ministry. We need intelligent people around and not incompetent fools.
sounds like Ahmed Ali fantasizes to the girls with "mini-skirts" at Aminiya school and he doesn't want people to fantasize other than him. such sick and sico people as board members? i don't understand.
Badr: you thought you voted for a change eh? no matter who you vote, its the same... if you vote for another president and if he wins its still the same or probably worst.
the problem is not government but the "Maldivians" in general.
some girls wear shorter skirts because longer skirts are heavy and the extra weight can bring down the weak structure?
if the board has members this silly, they should resign immediately regardless the introduction of grade 1. fools.
The Ministry of education want to wait until the building of Aminiya School also fall down oneday just like the way Arabiyya School fell down. They also want the girls only schools sexy thighs be seen by the horny parents coming to fetch the little grade one's in the school. Haha, this is the truth.