Ministry of Education has set a maximum duration of 8 years for school principals to serve one school.
The new rule was included in the regulations on assigning principals for schools, which was formulated by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and published on the website of the education ministry. The regulations were formulated to strengthen the administration of schools in the Maldives and to ensure capable and qualified principals are assigned to schools. The regulations also aim to resolve the problems faced when a principal remains at one school for a long period of time and to ensure fresh ideas and policies are implemented to improve the quality of school administration.
The regulation states announcements seeking principals must be issued in accordance to the civil service regulations and standards. It further states principals must be selected based on the scoring criteria set under civil service standards for technical positions in the education system. The selection process is required to be carried out by a designated committee.
The regulation further states a 5 member committee must be formed under the advice of the Minister of Education, to assign principals to schools under tenureship. While principals are hired as permanent staff of the education ministry, principals are required to serve in a government school under tenureship. The tenureship is set for a duration of 4 years, while no principal will be allowed to work at one school for more than 8 years. Principals assigned under tenureship will be evaluated under a scoring criteria, which allocates 50% for performance appraisal and 50% for interview.
The regulation states principals who are under the administrative structure of individual schools must be transferred to the administrative structure of the education ministry within 1 year, starting from the date the regulations came into effect. Although the regulations were published on September 10, the date on which it came into effect has been stated as January 16, 2020.