Malé, Maldives | 7 June 2026

The Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (COL-CEMCA) and the National Institute of Education (NIE), Ministry of Education, Maldives, inaugurated a five-day Hybrid TVET Consultation and Development Workshop on 7 June, 2026 in Malé, bringing together curriculum specialists, industry representatives, TVET educators, and lead teachers drawn from regional atolls across the country.

The workshop, running from 7 to 11 June 2026, aims to produce a validated Hybrid TVET Implementation Framework for higher secondary education — one that confronts a structural challenge at the heart of Maldivian education: how to deliver quality vocational training across 187 inhabited islands when the physical infrastructure to do so on every island remains financially and logistically out of reach.

The workshop was inaugurated by Dr Fathmath Nishan, the Director General of NIE. In her welcome address, she underscored the urgent need for Maldives to work for providing educational access to those placed in the atolls.

Speaking at the inaugural session, Dr. B. Shadrach, Director of COL-CEMCA, framed hybrid TVET not as a pedagogical experiment but as a national imperative, underscoring the need for delivery models that utilise online learning and virtual simulations to reduce dependence on physical infrastructure, whilst establishing regional cluster hubs for hands-on practical training.

The framework to emerge from the workshop is expected to align A-Level TVET modules with the Maldives National Qualifications Framework (MNQF), enabling credit transferability and improving pathways to formal employment. A central objective is ensuring that students in the outer atolls gain access to the same quality of vocational education currently available at the Malé Vocational High School — without requiring relocation to the capital.

The workshop will conclude on 11 June with the in-principle adoption of the draft framework by participating institutions.