Stop meddling with the national curriculum!

It has come to our notice that plans are afoot for making a major change in the national curriculum by making the two subjects, Islam and Dhivehi optional . A high ranking delegation of Adhaalath party met the Minister of Education to make clarification on the issue and it was confirmed that the Ministry is seriously planning to do it. Responding to the objections of the Adhaalath officials, the Minister said that he was serious on the issue and will not stop it and if objections are raised he will take the matter to the cabinet or the parliament to decide. Adhaalath delegation made it clear that the issue is directly related to the masses and cannot be decided by a few people in the cabinet or the parliament. If anyone, be it the cabinet or the parliament, decided to implement this, Adhaalath will take the issue to the masses.
In the recent national convention (“Mahaasinthaa”) on the national curriculum, the importance of Islam and Dhivehi in national education process was appreciated by the parents and those in the field of education. The decision to make these two subjects optional is a callous disregard to the resolutions of the “Mahaasinthaa”. It is against the aspirations of the parents.
The sole purpose of higher secondary education is not just securing enough marks in three subjects so that students can enter a university. Rather, one of the goals in this critical period of the education process should be giving the individual a sound foundation on which he can continue his further studies so that whichever field he chooses, he comes back as a Muslim and a Maldivian.
If these two subjects are made optional, very few students will take them as they are not required for any stream of study in most of the universities. Presently, the foreign students studying in our schools walk out when the Islam or Dhivehi periods are being taken. It is totally inconceivable when some or most of the Maldivian students have to walk out of class during these periods! Such a situation is preposterous!
The whole things smacks of a long term plan to strip the younger generations of Maldivians from the two essential ingredients of what makes them Maldivians. Namely, the Islamic religion and our language and culture. The prominent men and women who have spent most of their lifetime in the field of education are alarmed by this newfangled notion. Every Maldivian should resist it. Tooth and nail.