The government has decided to shut down Arabiyya School in Male’ after cracks in the building caused a wall to collapse yesterday.
Nobody was physically injured in the collapse but the principal, Mohamed Rasheed Ibrahim Rasheed, said two students suffered shock.
He said that the school had been aware of the condition of the school’s walls six years ago.
”The school was built out of granite 20 years ago,” Rasheed said. ”We knew this six years ago and we had been informing the education ministry about the problem ever since.”
Rasheed said the education ministry promised to reconstruct the school but ”have no budget.”
”Senior officials from the education ministry came here yesterday and met with the school board,” he said.
He said the school would be closed temporarily and the students will have to wait until the ministry decides what to do with them.
He said he had recently told the education ministry that the walls of the school were very weak, “and that I would not be taking responsibility if a student got injured.”
Deputy Minister for Education ministry Adam Nazeer said the ministry had decided to demolish and reconstruct Arabiyya.
”We had finished drawing the chart of the building,” he said, ”and will be publishing in the gazette for submission of proposals by those who are interested in doing the job.”
He said the ministry would meet the school board to discuss what to do with the students in the meantime.
”We will arrange it in such a way that they can study with their classmates and their teachers,” he said.
State Ministry for Islamic Affairs Ahmed Shaheem said the ministry was very concerned about the issue and “regretted” that the students would be kept waiting without studying.
”The Islamic Ministry will help them in any way we can,” Shaheem said.
He noted that students who graduated from Arabiyya School “have never taken part in violence or crime.”
”I’m very confident that the education ministry will decide the best way ahead for them,” he said.
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could it be wrath of God? woops
I have also heard this assertion that Arabiyya school alumni have 'never' taken part in violence, drugs or crime.
I wonder if Minivan News could do some kind of analysis of this statement. It would indeed be quite an achievement - the educational equivalent of a lobotomy!
thi ee raaje ge halaaku feshunuthan should not reconstructed. should be make into a park.
The Principal must take resposibility for any personal damage and he did knowingly put his students at harms way. He should have cordoned the wall off or even closed the school. He should have done more to keep the students safe rather than teach education ministry a lession for not listening to his at the potential expense of lives of his students. Would you send your kids to a school where the principal is happy to send the students to life threatening situations just because the education ministry is negligent in their duties?
"I have also heard this assertion that Arabiyya school alumni have ‘never’ taken part in violence, drugs or crime." Heh heh. If only they knew.
But no, the Ministry of Islamic Affairs have squandered their vast budget on building wastefully gilded mosques in the islands. And after hiring protesters to blockade our economic recovery, I suspect there is little they can do.
Schools are a responsibility of the Education Ministry. Not a responsibility of the Islamic Ministry.
All schools have to be treated equally and fairly.
I think Arabiyya School should be moved to Theemuge and provide parking space at the existing premise in Majeedee Magu.
“Graduates from Arabiyya School have never taken part in violence and crime” …now that’s one very bizarre comment…I just wonder the authenticity of it. I guess it depends on how Sheikh Shaheem defines “violence and crime”. Sheikh Shaheem you got to emphasize that statement of yours a bit more…Hmm I wonder why those Arabs from Saudi Arabia (graduates from Islamic institutions) come to Maldivian resorts and drink nothing but ALCOHOL…
“Graduates from Arabiyya School have never taken part in violence and crime”
LOL I have never seen a top achiever from arabiyya graduates...
These people wont stop until we change our religion..and we wont stop until we establish true Islam....
All Maldivians, be careful, they are in the fast forward mode because they are afraid of not fulfilling their oath to pharaoh