President Abdulla Yameen has re-established the Council of Higher Education, appointing his Vice President Dr Mohamed Jameel Ahmed its head, local media has reported.
Haveeru has reported that the council will be tasked with setting the criteria for courses at Maldivian higher education facilities as well as handling the transferring of students’ credit.
Joining the vice president on the council is reported to be six cabinet ministers from the ministries of health, youth, finance, fisheries, environment, and the Islamic Ministry.
They will be joined by Villa College rector Dr Ahmed Anwar, Dr Simad Saeed, Dr Ibrahim Saeed, Deputy Education Minister Azleen Ahmed, Director General of the Education Ministry Fathimath Amira, and Chancellor of the Maldives National University Dr Mohamed Zahir Hussein.
Vice President Jameel yesterday visited the Maldives National University, explaining that expanding academic opportunities was of the utmost importance to the new government.
Earlier this week, the Anti-Corruption Commission ordered the reevaluation of vetting procedures in the previous administration’s tertiary student loan initiative.
“[THe] Vice President spoke of the government’s vision to introduce short term professional training programmes for youth in fields such as offshore-financing, managerial economics, banking, accounting, auditing and tourism,” read a President’s Office press release.
During the meeting, Jameel also noted the government’s desire to include the youth in nation building.
Recently appointed Home Minister Umar Naseer this week revealed his intention to introduce obligatory government service for school leavers, explaining his motivations to Minivan News:
“We need to bring youth into a disciplined system where they get up early, become presentable, pray, have breakfast, work, and well, become responsible.”
“One of my objectives is to increase the number of trained professionals which will be useful in protecting the independence of a small country like ours, ” Naseer continued.
The Ministry of Education last week released its aims for the first 100 days of the Yameen administration, revealing a 19-point plan including the introduction of the Quran as a subject for grades 1-7, greater civic education, as well as greater professional standards for teachers.
According to the Ministry, the government will choose two islands to establish Arabic medium schools within the first 100 days as well as expanding special education and child protection policies.
As part of this plan the ministry is seeking to assign Quran teachers for all Schools before the academic year 2014. The ministry’s Permanent Secretary Dr. Abdul Muhsin Mohamed said that the ministry is still short of 26 Quran teachers to achieve this this objective.
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