Going Abroad for Studies

Going abroad itself was not an easy experience before the first airport in Maldives was opened in 1966  under leadership of Ibrahim Nasir the second president , then prime minister . Further , the permission to go abroad was not granted to each and everyone. The scholars of Maldives whom we find in the past such Hussain Salahuddin, Ibrahim Rushdie, Ibrahim Shihab, Abdul Majeed,Hassan Fareed, Mohamed Ameen Didi etc. were all people who belonged to royal and high ranking families. Due to their early exposure to outside world and the knowledge they gained people accepted them a lot . As a result they were the people who succeeded the leadership of the country in different ways. The trend of sending people who belonged to royal families lasted in Maldives until very recent days , though some very smart people who belonged to poorer and not well-known families squeezed them self out of the country for higher studies. This is a fact which would not be highlighted in most written documents as most documents were written by these scholars in the past and even present writers always referred to their writings. I have interviewed some people who tried to acquire higher studies and had to give up as they did not have permission as such to go abroad. However, I would not blame those people from royal families who went abroad to study which I have mentioned as its not they who decided the policy and further the names mentioned are of those who tried their best to educate people of Maldives after they returned which means the idea of equal opportunities of education was inculcated in them from wherever they studied. Some of them educated themselves from Al-Azhar University of Egypt. Others from India and Sri Lanka. Some even acquired education from two of the mentioned countries.


Even if we step further into history we find that some Sultans and their children had the opportunity to go to some part of India to acquire education. It is mentioned in the story of Mohamed Thakurufaan who saved Maldives from Portuguese that he went to some part in India to aqcuire some education but to which extent is not clearly stated. Further some other kings of Maldives went abroad and some settled down abroad. Yet this is not about gaining education.
As I have mentioned before Hussain Salahuddin, Ibrahim Rushdie encouraged then Sultan Shamsuddin to begin formal education for all. Further Mohamed Amin Didi as the first president of Maldives and as a strong leader introduced a lot of opportunities for Maldivians to acquire education. He is especially known for empowering women and providing opportunities of education for women. It is evident from history that during Mohamed Amin Didi’s presidency he sent 15 students from Maldives to Al-Azhar University and that one of them was former president of Maldives Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. Further its is clear that when they were not able to go to Egypt due to 1948 Arab-Israeli war they stayed in Sri Lanka to continue studies at Royal College, Colombo until condition was better in Egypt.