The government has pledged its full cooperation and support for young people aspiring to enter the field of journalism, following the signing of a key Strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Information and Arts and the Maldives National University (MNU).
Speaking at the signing ceremony, the Minister of Youth Empowerment, Information and Arts, Ibrahim Waheed stressed the critical importance of formal education for media professionals and assured the full support of the government in this endeavour.
The MoU, signed by Minister Ibrahim Waheed on behalf of the Ministry and Vice-Chancellor Dr Aishath Shehnaz Adam on behalf of MNU, aims to foster sustainable professional development and bring about sustainable changes in national growth, particularly within the media and arts sectors.
Minister Ibrahim Waheed appealed directly to the media sector, insisting that while passion drives the industry, structured learning is necessary for professional excellence.
"I want to tell the media in the country that journalists have to have academic knowledge in this field. About 90 percent of the journalists in the country have entered this field purely through the passion they have for it. It is not a bad way to do it but what you learn will be different from what you practice and write the next day," he explained, underscoring the government’s commitment to facilitating higher education opportunities.
Speaking during the ceremony, Vice-Chancellor Dr Shehnaz highlighted that the university’s primary responsibility is educational service to the country, and that the MoU will inject new impetus into the work of both institutions.
Dr Shehnaz detailed MNU’s commitments under the agreement, which include providing essential resources for the Ministry’s training programmes, offering technical assistance to ensure programmes meet Maldives Qualification Authority (MQA) standards, conducting crucial on-the-job training sessions, and supplying qualified facilitators.
The collaborative framework ensures that the Ministry will actively assist in recruiting participants for the university’s media and arts programmes. Crucially, the MNU has also agreed to participate in subsidising a proportion of the course fees for those media-related programmes, providing young people with ample opportunities to professionalise their skills in the journalism field.