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WOMEN'S EDUCATION IN MALDIVES

Rasheeda M. Didi
In the Maldives there is equal opportunity for both men and women at all levels of education. Parental Inspirations for a better standard of living.through education, has been a strong influence in making educational opportunities ace essible to girls. However, due to various reasons, there arc marked differences in the choice of professions, skills and percentage of higher educational achievements. For-example. as there are no higher educational facilities tn the country, students depend on bilateral government aid or International assistance for scholarship and fellowship programmes to study abroad. In some cases the period of wafting can be upto four years. Therefore, although the will to ' participate and Join training
may be present. Idleness and the social environment leads to the constraints of marriage and motherhood which prevent a good number of female school-leavers seeking proficient training, as compared with male school-leavers.
Despite limited educational resources, the comparatively high national rate of literacy, which. at present stands at 86.7% and the high female literacy rale, are due to a strong home-based system of literacy education, which has prevailed over the centuries and the more recent programmes of Adult Literacy, Basic Educational Continuing Education for over-aged children. in which 2/3 of the participants are women.
Non-formal education of women in. specific, traditional, female-oriented skills had
been prevalent tl roughout his toiy. These include areas such as the early childhood and Infant education, mat and thatch-weavelng. rope-making and shell collecting.
In the past 15 years, women had been trained, alongwlth men. In a variety of fields. The main areas include teaching, medicine, nursing, midwifery, community health and secretarial work.
But specific formal women's education as such is a recent phenomena in the Maldives. This does not mean, however, that there had not been fields and professions, such as nursing. midwifery and embroidery work, in which training had been undertaken exclusively by women. These had not been organised with the aim and conscience of training women particularly but because of the
cultural norms of the society, unofficially, the nature of the training demanded the enrollment of women.
However. with the establishment of the National Women's Committee. a government body for the development of the welfare of women, tn April 1979, a conscious effort of training women gradually materialised.
The most Important programme for women, conducted in the past 4 years, by the National Women s Committee has been the Leadership Skills Training for rural women. This training alms to develop women leaders In the Island communities and hopes to train at least, one women in each of the 201 inhabited islands of the Maldives, by the end of 1986. The broad curricula attempts to incorporate basic areas of health, education and income-generation alongwlth the more specific leadership skills. In this, the training aims to educate the women in the basic methods of childcare, environmental health, nutrition, child-spacing; skills needed for income-generating and community development work, such as basic Arithmetic. project planning, sewing and cookery and leisure time activities such as jiandicrafts. library-reading, and sports. It also attempts to create an awareness amongst the women regarding their rights as citizens, familiarisation of the functions of the government, and the educational radio programmes. It is hoped that these women, then, will impart the knowledge and skills gained In the training, to other women, and act as leaders in organising the Island women in activities that are desirable and beneficial for the community. Other programmes planned by the NWC for women include nutrition workshops, handicrafts training and sewing courses.
Women's training arc also organised by the National Youth Centre, the form of sewing courses, the Allied Health Centre, in Nurae-Ald and Midwifery training and the Ministry of Trade and Industries in embroidery work.