Educational Development Centre conducts speech competition

Educational Development Centre (EDC) has conducted a speech competition on the theme of government economic policy as part of the Maldives Independence Day celebrations. Participants of the competition were students from four secondary schools in Malé.

Majeediyya School, Dharumavantha School, Ameeniyya School and Taajuddin School participated in the speech contest that took place yesterday at Dharubaaruge. 12 students of 13-16 years of age participated in the competition.

For the competition, students were given information about the government’s economic and social security policies, including briefings on some 14 economy-related bills proposed to the People’s Majlis (parliament) by the government. A State Minister at the Ministry of Finance and another senior official of the Ministry instructed the students in these areas, while Mohamed “Colonel” Nasheed, Member of Parliament for Nolhivaram constituency and ruling Maldivian Democratic Party member, trained the students for the speech contest. Nasheed had worked as a Divehi language teacher at Dharumavantha School before he became a Member of Parliament.

President Mohamed Nasheed visited the competition as it went on, and with him senior officials of the Ministry of Education and schools in Malé also visited it, in addition to students from secondary and primary schools in Malé.

Topics on which participants spoke included the ‘Importance of Abolishing Foreign Investment Law”, “True Independence is Self-Sufficiency”, “The Importance of Decreasing National Debt”, “The Importance of Taxing”. In all the speeches, the students were required to speak on the benefits of government bills proposed to the People’s Majlis.

During last June, some Island Councilors from B. Kendhoo conducted a program to inform secondary school students in the island about ruling Maldivian Democratic Party’s Manifesto.