Maldivian hotelier takes over British school :
constructs new school investing US$ 7 million
by Shirajiv Sirimane
The new management of the British School has invested
USD 7 million to construct a new school at Borella and the new complex
would be opened in September.
According to the Vice-Chairman of the project S. Maniku
of the Maldives, the demand for English education is very high and this
was one reason for them to invest on their own property. "Everybody
knows how difficult it is to get a child admitted to a Colombo school.
One reason for this is the high literacy rate and the
limited number of English education schools," he said. He said that his
daughter was a student of the British school and due to various reasons
the management decided to sell the school to its parents. "At this
point, I stepped in and with a few other investors bought the property.
I felt that it was a part of my social obligation to
resurrect this school," he said. He said that they decided to move to
their own property mainly to accommodate more students. "We have around
600 students and we hope to double the intake by the end of the year,"
he said.
The school has a swimming pool, an indoor stadium and a
modern lab and many other features which were not available earlier. "We
are also looking at investing in similar properties in the future," he
said.
Maniku is also the Chairman of the Universal Group of
Maldives and also has shares in Mahaweli Reach Hotel Kandy and have many
other investments such as Valiant Towers in Colombo.
The group has been in the Maldivian tourism industry for
25 years and owns over 500 five star rooms in Male. |
