Forty six years on Skool Magu
One school for the whole island, and what that means for a family here.
One school for the whole island
Dhonveli School opened in 1979 with two rooms and eighty children. It now has three hundred and twelve, in grades one to ten, and twenty four teachers.
Being the only school on an island shapes almost everything. There is no choosing between schools here, so a family that is unhappy has nowhere else to go, and that puts an obligation on us that a school in a city does not have in the same way. It is the reason for the Wednesday parent hour, for the written report every term rather than a mark sheet, and for the school telling a family about a problem in the week it appears rather than at the end of a term.
It also means the school is the island's hall, its examination centre, its meeting place and its cyclone shelter, and the building is in use a good deal more than the timetable suggests.
Children here finish with us at the end of grade ten. For grades eleven and twelve they go to the school on the neighbouring island, which takes about forty minutes on the school boat, and we spend the last two terms of grade ten preparing families for that move: the boat, the timetable, the subject choices and what the hostel arrangement involves for the children who stay over.
The school works with the parent teacher association on the canteen, the uniform lending shelf and the reading books, and the association is genuinely independent of the school, which is the only way an association is worth having.
The leadership and the departments
Ahmed Faris
Nineteen years teaching, seven of them here. Teaches two grade ten mathematics periods a week because a principal who does not teach stops k...
Mariyam Haajara
Built the reading programme and the book wallet arrangement. The person to ask about anything in the lower grades, including a child you are...
Ibrahim Munaz
Holds the subject departments, the examination timetables and the grade eight subject choice meetings. Also runs the chess club, which has t...
Fathimath Ziyadha
Admissions, term dates, the message books, transfers and every letter this school sends. She is who answers the telephone and who to ask for...
What a family has to pay for
What is the uniform, and where do we get it?
The list is on the notice sent home in the first week and is at the office: shirt, trousers or pinafore, the school tie for grades six and above, black shoes, white socks, and the sports kit. Two shops on the island sell it and a tailor on Falhu Magu makes the pinafores.
The association keeps a uniform shelf of outgrown sets in good condition. Anybody may take what they need, nothing is written down and nobody is asked a question. About forty sets move each year.
What does the school charge for?
The school does not charge fees. What a family pays for is the uniform, shoes, the book wallet if it is lost, examination stationery, and the canteen if a child eats there, which is ten rufiyaa a plate.
Clubs, sport, the library, the support room and the boat for away matches are all free. A family that cannot manage the uniform should speak to the administrator, who will point them at the shelf and, if needed, arrange the rest quietly.
The parent hour is Wednesday, eleven until noon
No appointment. Come to the office and ask for the class teacher by name, and somebody will find them.