A Study of the Cluster Schools Policy in the Maldives Aamaal All Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment for the Doctor of Education Degree Institute of Education UNIVERSITY OF LONDON May 2006 ABSTRACT In the Maldives, despite everyone having access to primary education, there are wide disparities in the quality of education provided by schools in the capital and schools on the rural islands. In an attempt to address the ongoing concern of the rural communities to improve their schools, the Ministry of Education introduced a new policy in July 1999. This policy led to the formation of clusters of schools which consisted of a 'lead' government school intended to serve as a resource and support to a number of nearby community schools. Each cluster is usually made up of 6 to 11 schools. The cluster policy has not been studied since its introduction six years ago. This research study aims to investigate the cluster policy - its rationale, processes of implementation and impact on the schools, through the perceptions of key stakeholders, with a broader view to improve schools in the Maldives. For the research, I travelled to four regions to carry out four case studies. Each case study is based on a full cluster of schools of an atoll and a selection of schools in neighbouring clusters within the same atoll. Fifty schools were targeted in fourteen clusters. Data were collected from interviews with key stakeholders - the cluster heads, lead teachers, island chiefs and officials of Ministry of Education. The conceptual framework of antecedents, processes and impact, developed by Lunt et al. (1988) in their study of clusters in the UK, was used to structure the inquiry. The interview data were analysed thematically. This study found that the cluster policy was not sufficiently resourced and comprehensively conceptualised to engender the intended school improvement. Set within a context of small developing islands, the policy lacked the essential ingredients for a collaborative venture of this kind to succeed. However, among the stakeholders there is an acceptance of the potential good such a policy can bring about. The problems identified in this research go some way to explain why the cluster policy was short-lived and has now effectively ceased to exist. i TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract Acknowledgements iii List of Acronyms and Abbreviations iv List of Figures List of Tables CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 2 THE CONTEXT OF THE STUDY 13 CHAPTER 3 LITERATURE REVIEW OF SCHOOL CLUSTERS 28 CHAPTER 4 METHODOLOGY AND METHODS 47 CHAPTER 5 CASE STUDIES 63 CHAPTER 6 CLUSTER POLICY: ANTECEDENTS, PROCESSES AND OUTCOMES 96 CHAPTER 7 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS 116 REFERENCES 130 APPENDICES 138 ii Dedication - To my late grandfather Mohamed Luthfi, for believing in my abilities, my father Ali Ibrahim for instilling in me a love for learning and my former husband Ilyas Ibrahim for supporting me in my academic pursuits. Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge: ■ The many people (family and friends) whose support and encouragement over the years kept me steadfast on this journey. ■ All those involved in my interviews who gave their time voluntarily without whom there would be no thesis. ■ My friends Moomina Haleem for her hospitality, Mohamed Waheed Deen for his generosity, Sharon Burton for her continued support as friend and mentor helping me along my study journey, Dr. Meena Ahmed, Dr. Karl Wall and Dr. Hassan Hameed for their comments on my draft and Ali Haidar for assistance with maps and formatting. ■ My supervisors Professor Pam Sammons and Dr. Caroline Lodge for their warmth, advice and comments on the study and many drafts of this thesis. ■ In particular the Dean of Doctoral School, Professor Ingrid Lunt whose empathy and rigour kept me on track at way points during my EdD journey and ensured I reached the shore safely. iii List of Acronyms and Abbreviations AEC Atoll Education Centre EdD Doctorate in Education DfES Department for Employment and Skills GCE 0' Level General Certificate in Education Ordinary Level GDP Gross Domestic Product ICSEI International Congress for School Improvement and Effectiveness INSET In Service Education for Teachers ISEIC International School Effectiveness and Improvement Centre KENSIP Kenya School Improvement Programme MoAA Ministry of Atolls Administration MoE Ministry of Education MPND Ministry of Planning and National Development NDMC National Disaster Management Centre OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OED Oxford English Dictionary UN United Nations UNDP United Nations Development Programme iv UNICEF United Nations International Children's Education Fund UPE Universal Primary Education VSO Volunteer Service Overseas List of Figures Figure 1 Map of the Maldives Figure 2 Cluster Model Figure 3 Case Study 1 - Map of Huvadhu Atoll Clusters Figure 4 Case Study 2 - Map of Ari Atoll Clusters Figure 5 Case Study 3 - Map of Thiladhunmathi Clusters Figure 6 Case Study 4 - Map of Hadhunmathi Clusters List of Tables Table 1 Case Study 1 Schools Visited Table 2 Case Study 2 Schools Visited Table 3 Case Study 3 Schools Visited Table 4 Case Study 4 Schools Visited CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This chapter introduces the study, raises the research issues to be addressed and provides a rationale for the study. In the Maldives, as in many parts of the developing world, equity and the quality of provision of education are being given increasing attention by government. Although access to seven years of primary education for everyone had been nearly achieved by the year 2000, in the Maldives, (with consequent increase in demand for secondary education over the same period), the overall learning achievement in primary and secondary schools remains low (Ministry of Planning and National Development [MPND] 2002). Learning achievement is examined at national level at 16 plus, through local examinations in Dhivehi and Islam and through the Cambridge Ordinary Level examination results. Overall, performance in the Cambridge examinations for Maldives has shown very poor pass rates across the system (Chandra and Kilby 2004). In 2002, for example, the English Language results were an abysmal 6 percent A-C grades and the overall pass rate (grades A - C) in other subjects was low at 30 percent (Ministry of Education [MoE] 2003:8). These results raise serious questions as to the standard of secondary level education in schools in the Maldives. The disparity, in terms of achievement and the standard of provision of education, between the capital and other urban centres and the rural islands, is of particular concern to the education service in the Maldives. The standards in the rural schools, which are usually community run government subsidised schools, are much lower than in the urban schools, which are usually government run and funded schools. Although representatives speaking on behalf of community schools have been demanding a better quality of education for some time, the disparity between the urban and rural schools continues. There are many possible 1 reasons for this disparity. A United Nations Development Programme report (MPND and United Nations Development Programme [UNDP] 2000a) suggests that it has much to do with human and financial resource capacity. According to this report (ibid) there is a shortage of human resource capacity, characterised by a high percentage of untrained teachers and a heavy dependence on incompetent expatriate teachers. There is, in addition, a lack of financial resources to assist the system's ability to employ better trained expatriate teachers and produce or acquire good quality teaching resources. Further, the report suggests that the curriculum lacks relevance to students' lives and there is an inadequate national system to manage, monitor and supervise teaching and learning. These are the factors that contribute to the continuing disparity (MPND and UNDP 2000a). The country's physical geography and its rapid population growth present additional challenges in the provision of education and other public services. The Maldives is made up of 1190 small, low-lying coral islands that extend from the Equator northward, forming a chain 820 kilometres in length within an area of over 90,000 square kilometres, located in the Indian Ocean 600 kilometres south of India. The population is spread over 200 islands with over a quarter of the population (29%) living on Male', the capital island. The population of the Maldives has been growing at the rate of 3.4 percent per annum during the inter-census periods, (1985-1990) and at this rate of growth it is said that the population will double in 21 years i.e. from 213,215 in 1990 to 426,430 in 2010 (Chaudhury 1996). At the time of writing (2005) the population is approximately 300,000. Few of the islands have a land area in excess of one to two square kilometres; the capital Male' is 2 square kilometres in extent. Only 17 islands have a population more than 2,000, and the rest live on mostly rural islands with no more than 1,000 people to an island. Each island is separated from others by open sea. Essential infrastructure for development, such as transport and communications, is poor and haphazard. For these reasons alone, the provision and 2 management of education is complex and the challenges to improving the quality of education are immense. According to the 6th National Development Plan 2001-2005: one of the major challenges that confronts the country has been to ensure that the benefits of growth and development are equitably shared among its highly scattered citizens. (MPND 2002:19) A combination of different factors, geographical, economic and historical, particularly in the way that education provision has developed, has resulted in wide disparities between the country's capital island and the other islands. These disparities in infrastructure, resources and standards in schools and services have been of continuing concern to families, community developers, educators and policy makers.