Vice President Faisal Naseem has inaugurated the 5th International Teacher’s Conference on Wednesday in Addu City.

Speaking at the conference, the Vice President said that the administration is firmly resolved to undertake initiatives to improve the quality of education.

The Vice President emphasized the importance of Maldives learning from the methods used by countries which are well-regarded for the quality of education, highlighting Finland, which he visited in March, as an example. He remarked that, while Finnish teaching methods are unconventional, with emphasis on autonomous learning and critical thinking over rote learning, memorization and frequent examinations, they have yielded clear results, evident in the high positions Finland routinely achieves on global rankings in the education field.

He further lauded the high esteem in which Finland holds teachers and the steps they undertake to ensure that only the most capable individuals enter the teaching profession, by requiring a minimum of a Master’s degree for even the most basic teaching jobs.

He said that it is paramount that the Maldives’s education system prioritizes providing a holistic and equitable educational approach that is fair to all students and that it is essential that students who demonstrate academic prowess are provided with a curriculum that is challenging enough. He also said that those who struggle with school should be provided with the adequate support to ensure that they are not left behind and that students with special needs should be provided proper guidance and attention, adding that these underlying sentiments have been compiled into President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih’s Education Sector Plan.

The 5th International Teacher's Conference, organized by the National Institute of Education, focuses on education in the global, national and individual context while providing a forum for academics from different nationalities to share insights and expertise relevant to the field.