Education Minister Dr Ismail Shafiu has said that the government is planning to introduce 'patriotism' subject in schools and will start teaching it in the next two to three weeks.

At a meeting of the Social Council held on January 10, it was decided to include 'patriotism' as a separate subject in the national education curriculum and start teaching from the next academic year.

Speaking at a programme organized by PSM last night, Minister Shafiu said that president Dr. Mohamed Muizzu has given utmost priority to inculcating patriotism among the students.

The Minister said that as part of efforts to include the subject in the curriculum, the extent of patriotic language in other subjects and the characteristics of patriotism have been identified and based on that, a lot of content has been developed to start a pilot programme and hopefully it will start in the next two to three weeks.

"Such a huge task will be designed, piloted and based on the pilot's results and we will formally integrate it into the curriculum," Minister Shafiu said.

He added that the pilot programme will first begin with fourth graders.

In line with President Dr. Muizzu's pledge to start the academic year in January and make the annual holiday to December, the Ministry recently announced how to change the dates mentioned for the change. The ministry has announced that the current term will be completed on April 30 and the new academic session is scheduled to begin on May 26.