No Business Studies Teacher At I'nguraidhoo School For Past 2 Months As O' Levels Approach, Parents Worried

Parents of students at the Raa I'nguraidhoo School have expressed their concerns that the school has not been staffed with a Business Studies teacher, even as the GCE O'Level exams are scheduled to be held within the next two months.

A parent told The Maldives Journal, on the condition of anonymity, that an expatriate teacher had been teaching Business Studies for the school's grade 9 and 10 classes. The teacher had resigned in December 2021.

Since the teacher's resignation, the classes are being handled by the school's Economics teacher. However, since the subject requires specialist knowledge, the lack of an experienced Business Studies teacher was an obstacle to the students' preparation for the upcoming exams.

The School had announced the the job opening and had selected a viable candidate for the job; a Maldivian national. The School had requested the Ministry of Education for their permission to grant the Maldivian teacher the job, yet the Ministry did not respond for a month. A month later, the Ministry responded that the school's documents were incomplete, and had nullified the entire process the School had undertaken to select the teacher.

The Education Ministry ordered the School to re-announce the job opening and hire a teacher for the position. Parents of students at the school point out that the process of hiring a new teacher would waste more time, especially with the GCE O'Level exams within two months. The parents were worried that the students' preparation for their exams without the guidance of an experienced teacher would negatively affect their results.

The parents said that they had informed their parliament representative, MP Hassan "Hassantey" Ahmed (MDP-I'nguraidhoo) about this.