Education's role with regard to the economic, social and political changes should, as far as possible, be proactive concentrating on taking policy initiatives rather than merely react to changes and events. Education's role should aim towards purposeful interventions rather than towards passive reaction. A major role that the education system can play in meeting the challenges arising from economic, social and political changes in the Maldives is to expand the school system to ensure high quality in primary and extended primary education, strengthen secondary and post-secondary institutions and to promote study abroad in crucial areas where skill gaps exist, while attempting to establish a mechanism for providing at least first year university level courses in appropriate disciplines and which will be acceptable as credits to degrees with universities / link institutions abroad. Recent efforts to expand the Maldivian school system and promote study abroad are impacting upon the level of educational attainment in the national labour force.

The youth of a nation comprising a large majority will carry on the process of nation building and of shaping the destiny of the Maldivian people. To be prepared for this task it is important that they be educated and trained to the best extent possible, that they have a knowledge of the traditions and culture of Maldives and that they are imbued with a sense of purpose and vision. In a time of increasing exposure to different cultural influences, rapid growth, and the breaking up of the traditional system, attention needs to be paid to ensuring that the youth of the nation are not by-passed, alienated or marginalised. With the number of school leavers increasing and the number of overseas scholarships decreasing there is an urgent need to provide higher education in the country as well as to increase the provision of training at all levels.

The target Maldives has set itself under basic education for all is very clear. Where children of school age are concerned it is the provision of a 7-year basic education for all eligible children by the year 2000. Primary education up to 5 years is nearly universal. Infrastructure facilities are also widely available. Drop-out and repetition rates are not high. However there are wide variations between Male’ and the atolls.

Where youth and adults are concerned, Maldives has the advantage of near universal literacy as of now (1999). With respect to these two groups the concern is with the "expanded vision of basic education" for a highly literate population with more and more of the population acquiring a higher educational level. The Ministry of Education will be only one of the agencies serving these groups. Several other ministries and departments and private agencies will be involved including the media.

Maldives also has an urgent national concern which demands more than "basic education" as a national education target. A special problem Maldives had to face and still faces is the necessity to use foreign workers at many levels but particularly at the professional levels, indicated by the relatively large proportion of expatriate teachers serving in the higher grades of the formal school system. In other sectors also the position is similar. The educational level of the population as a whole has to be raised to a level where Maldives has adequate numbers of trainable persons to meet the development needs of the country. Access to the secondary school has to be increased. But it has also at the same time to be mindful of the problem of educated unemployment. At present secondary places (grades 8 and above) are relatively small in the atolls in spite of the major expansion being in the atolls. It is somewhat adequate in Male’. The inadequacy of secondary places in the atolls, explains, in large measure, the very high repetition rates in grades 6 and 7.

Despite the wide dispersion of the population, Maldives has the advantage of being a very closely-knit nation, all belonging to one religion, Islam and all speaking the same language. It has maintained its distinct identity for centuries.

Many of the changes occurring in the Maldives place an ever-increasing demand on all members of the educational system to be concerned with values education. The nature of discipline within schools and the behaviour and attitudes of students and school leavers in the general society have raised the issue whether the education system is imparting the proper values to the students.

The concern with values education will need to be approached in multiple ways. The curriculum explicitly teaches lessons through stories and examples that are used. Teachers, both in what they say and, perhaps even more, in how they behave, transmit values to their students. Administrators must recognise that values education is an appropriate part of the schools responsibility. The school is never a fully successful substitute for the morals and values the child should learn at home. But in the present circumstances it has an important role to play in ensuring that all students have access to values education that will prepare them to be positive members of the Maldivian society. The same point could be made in relation to prevent education against drug abuse and HIV/AIDS.

The following will constitute the basis for meeting the challenges in education in the Maldives.

• Improving educational efficiency is often seen solely as a decision to cut cost. In the Maldives efforts will be increased to reduce the number of dropouts, failure and repetition in order to maximize the current funds available for education to be used more efficiently. To maintain quality only at current levels or, worse, to allow quality to decline as a result of the looming quantitative expansion, would have neither a favourable human resource development nor a healthy political outcome. Properly trained and motivated teachers, effective management and supervision, appropriate facilities and learning materials and a curriculum with suitable subject distribution and content are basic requirements for acceptable educational quality.

• The major issue here is the imbalance between Male and the atolls. Nurseries and pre-schools have been established on the atolls but the support for them from the government is for the training of the teachers and for obtaining educational materials whereas in Male the salaries of the teachers are paid by the government in addition. A related issue is the role of the traditional Edhuruge and Kiviyaage with the emergence of the more modern institutions.
• Another issue is the expansion of the concept to include wider concerns such as health and nutrition of mothers and children, development of children from birth to age of entry into nursery.
• It is essential to develop the provision in the atolls without adversely affecting the facilities already well established in Male’. The existing provision for the atolls for the training of teachers and supply of materials will be considerably expanded.
• A study will be launched on a few selected islands, to examine the feasibility of developing a system of early childhood care and development for younger children and support for the health and nutrition of their mothers using the existing traditional practices and structures. This is expected to take from 2 – 3 years and will provide guidelines for policy formulation.

• This is the major issue that the country has to address. The bulk of the essential physical infrastructure is now in place for a 7-year cycle and the shortfalls have to be taken care of. The supply of facilities, instructional materials, and other learning resources to schools will emphasize the quality and appropriateness of these items. Facilities, furnishings and equipment will be dealt with first in terms of assuring adequacy of all schools given the curriculum requirements and the number of learners. At this level all the teachers are nationals. What is needed is to improve the professional competencies of the current cadre and recruit new local teachers with minimum academic and professional qualifications as the need arises. The latter is only a long-term possibility that is also dependent on increasing the capacity of the teacher education system. The short-term measure is to improve the competencies of the current cadre for which also the teacher education system has to contribute.
• Further, a systematic mechanism for monitoring student learning is essential for the improvement of basic education. Periodic assessment of the education system on the basis of previously established standards of achievement for children at certain definite stages as end of grade 3, grade 5 and grade 7 are necessary. Current practice does not allow for comparison of the performance of students. Hence it is necessary to establish and sustain a monitoring culture through capacity building to improve the performance of the education system.
• There are groups of children needing special attention for a variety of reasons. Special attention will have to be paid to the following: Children in outer, remote islands; Disabled children; Children with special problems.
• As a preparation for the 21^st Century, provision will be made to ensure that all students who complete grade 10 after the year 2000 will be computer literate.
• The quality of school staff, particularly in the islands, will be improved through training heads of schools, regular and closer supervision of schools by trained supervisors, stronger emphasis on continuing in-service education of teachers, provision of incentives to teachers, such as bonuses, housing, to work in remote schools, recognition and rewarding of good teachers, and motivating teachers for self-learning through bonuses, salary adjustments, etc.
• Minimum Learning Competencies will be specified for all subjects and assessment guidelines will have to be given.
• Access to in-service education need to expanded using distance education.
• The grade level transition rates will be improved through measures to reduce wastage such as improving the quality of the staff, expansion of the physical space. The quick establishment of the additional floor space needed in the atoll schools to provide the 7 –year basic education cycle for all children will be supported by an immediate survey of the existing floor spaces to determine the shortfalls.

• The issue here is that while various ministries and agencies have made provision, there has been no coordinated, sustained effort. While there are increasing services to the atoll populations on the atolls themselves, the adequacy of these needs to be examined. New opportunities to serve widely dispersed small populations using modern technologies need to be explored.
• It is necessary to co-ordinate the basic education provision for youth and adults to ensure that no areas are neglected, certain minimum standards are met in conducting systematic courses and there is no duplication of efforts.

• A broad-based educational management information system (EMIS) will be initiated to facilitate policy level and administrative decision making. Such an EMIS should consider five major areas at least initially. They are labour market information, details on content and activities of educational programmes, cost and expenditure data, student flow and student performance measures and teachers.

• It is now accepted that the life style of the affluent world is not sustainable. With the "economic development" there is the tendency for developing countries to emulate what is clearly not a sustainable life style for "ALL". It is very evident that the life style on Male’ is not sustainable elsewhere in Maldives even assuming that it is sustainable on Male’. What is the vision for Maldives? It is a function of basic education for all to assist in the development of such a vision and promulgating it amongst the population.
• In this context the national basic education school curriculum may have to be revised in this perspective. Improving curricular relevance to prepare students both for further education and emerging employment opportunities.
• The revision and improvement of curriculum and instructional materials will be met by strengthening evaluation and research capacity within the sector. Data leading to information on the actual distribution, use and appropriateness of the learning materials in different classroom settings will contribute significantly in this aspect. Special tasks in this regard will be to review the English language curriculum in primary education, English and mathematics preparation in secondary education, the science orientation of upper secondary education and the lack of adequate occupational preparation at all level.

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