Minister of Education Dr. Aishath Shiham has said that the education sector outperformed other countries in South Asia region. She made the statement while speaking on the TV programme, Maldives Today, aired on PSM News.
Despite the country's challenges associated with a highly dispersed population scattered in about 200 remote islands, the education sector has surpassed other countries in the region, said the Minister of Education. Minister Aishath Shiham stated that Maldives is also proud to be among the few developing countries in the world which had fully achieved all six of the Education for All (EFA) goals by 2015 which includes; an expanded early childhood care and education, provision of free and compulsory primary education for all, promotion of learning and life skills for young people and adults, elimination of adult illiteracy, achieving gender parity and gender equality, as well as improving the quality of education.
The Minister said that the measures taken to address inequities in the quality of education, especially on narrowing the gap between rural and urban populations through upgrading and expanding educational facilities and training and deployment of more qualified teachers, have produced tangible results. She said that two years into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), Maldives is well on track in achieving the targets of SDG 4 to 'ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning'.
Minister Aishath Shiham noted that the national education policies and sector plans are in full alignment with the SDG 4 on quality education and the country is well on track to achieving all targets far ahead of 2030.