Tag: Dr Abdulla Nazeer

Mandhu College denies violating agreement as eviction looms

Mandhu College has stated that the Ministry of Education’s orders to vacate the building in which the college is being run are based on false allegations.

In a letter sent by Mandhu College to the education ministry, the college refuted claims it had breached the agreement between the owners of Malé English School (MES), denying that it was at fault for the failure to operate a school on the premises.

Mandhu Learning Center’s Mandhu College Campus was handed a 15 day eviction notice by the Ministry of Education on January 25.

Last week, State Minister of Education Dr Abdulla Nazeer told Minivan News that the college was handed the notice as it was operating in violation of the agreement made with the government.

“The building was initially given to Malé English School (MES) in to operate a school. In 2008, the contract was renewed and MES signed a third party agreement with Mandhu College who then started using the building to run a college,” said Dr Nazeer.

Nazeer said that a separate letter was sent to Mandhu College inviting it to engage in negotiations with the government regarding the interest of students currently studying at the college.

The college explained that after the agreement with MES’ owners was cancelled and changed to Mandhu College in 2010, the college was unable to commence studies in the building that year as the agreement had been completed after the academic year had started.

“The building was given to run Al Madrasatul Arabiyyathul Islamiyya from April 2010 to December of 2011 upon the ministry’s request.  Subsequently, the period was extended to the end of 2012 again on the request of the ministry”, read the letter signed by Director of Administration Aishath Rasheed.

The college also stated that the building was emptied and handed over in February of 2013, again after the commencement of the academic year, meaning the school was unable to start classes.

Further, Mandhu College claimed that its efforts to start teaching for A-levels in June 2013 failed as the education ministry had not granted the necessary permissions as had been requested.

Despite the ministry serving Mandhu College the notice of eviction under Article 27 of the agreement, the college is challenging the legality of the notice claiming it did not specify exactly which point of the agreement the college had violated.

According to the three page letter “the company does not believe eviction notice sent by the ministry is the valid eviction notice”, adding that the company does not believe that the agreement was violated or invalidated.

State minister Nazeer told Minivan News today that the issue will now explored by the ministry’s legal representatives and that he is unable to comment on the matter further.

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Education Ministry decides to hold resit of Sunday’s SSC Dhivehi exam

The Education Ministry has decided to hold a resit for the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Dhivehi examination that took place last Sunday after discovering that the questions were too similar to a specimen paper prepared in April.

Newspaper Haveeru reported that a committee formed to look into declining grades for SSC Islam and Dhivehi subjects recommended changes to the syllabus last year and prepared a specimen paper.

“A parent called yesterday and said that his child told him that the Dhivehi exam was very easy as it had the same questions in the specimen paper. We crosschecked the specimen and the test paper and found that the two papers had similar questions. We decided to hold the exam again in order to avoid any confusion about the examination,” Deputy Education Minister Dr Abdulla Nazeer was quoted as saying.

The resit has been scheduled for November 19, he said.

The Department of Public Examinations (DPE) has meanwhile launched an investigation.

“The questions about ‘Raivaru’, poem and essay were similar [to the specimen paper]. The letter writing question only had the receiver’s address changed. The students thoroughly practiced the specimen paper because major changes were brought to this year’s examination,” a Dhivehi teacher from a secondary school in Male told Haveeru.

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