Local Teachers............

Local teachers are good. They can explain better. They will take more care of students. Locals will have more talents.

I use to hear this story since I joined Hithadhoo School back in 2005 after my A' Level. Now, the noise is well loud enough that the whole society can hear it. All schools wants to get local teachers. Faculty of Education (FE) of MCHE seems to be busy training the very much demanded locals. I too happened to be under the umbrella of FE.

As someone who got a chance to study from both locals and expatriates I do agree that locals could better teach the Maldivian students. Yet, a mere could will not do the magic. The question is will it happen? Will it be as fruitful as we hope? I doubt.

Though I myself is a student of FE, it is true that there is a lot more attention given to quantity than quality. Many student teachers who are presently studying and many who already finished asks questions about the quality. This is something to be considered.

Also, a very large majority of trainee teachers are ladies. I am not saying they can not cope with the present school situations, indeed they can. However, it is true that due to our ways of life, very often ladies stay at home often after getting kids. This could lead to frequent changes in teachers which does not sound good for students.

Moreover, there is a lot of divisions in our society. These divisions, regardless of we want or not, will penetrate to our schools as well. Can a didvided team of teachers really cater for a school and bring out what the society looks forward?

At last it is also true that some though with a lot of training, fails to work even up to the level of many expatriate teachers. Moreover, some, with the skills and potential with them, don't use it.

You may ask me if this is a suicide attempt:) or whatever, but, I just have one question. Will it be OK to anyone as long as he or she is a local? Wonder how this new experiment will end.