President Solih orders action against Asian Academy of Aeronautics

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has ordered to reprimand the Asian Academy of Aeronautics (AAA) or the Addu Flying School and instructed to issue easements to the loans of the students receiving training and studying at the institute. 

Years have passed since parents and students of the school have complained and made allegations over the prolonged courses of the school among a number of other issues. 

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, today ordered steps to be taken against the school. The President ordered the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to take action against the School's Head of Pilot Training and Accountable Manager. 

The President also ordered an independent audit of the CAA over possible negligence of the CAA in the matter, and why the matter has been dragged on for so long. 

The President further instructed the Finance Ministry to make arrangements and introduce easements to the student loans of the AAA obtained through the Bank of Maldives and the Ministry of Higher Education. 

The AAA currently has students studying on loans as well as privately funded students. More than 90 of the 150 students at the school are studying on loans. 

The loans of students studying on BML loans will be moved under the Higher Education and the interest rate of the loans will be born by the Ministry. 

Complaints about the prolonged courses of the school have been circulating for years, with some students having to go through two or three years of studies to complete a 12-18 month court.

The loan repayment period is to be extended by six months for students once they present evidence of the date of the completion of their course for students studying on student loans since the issues regarding AAA have persisted so long. 

Enrollment of new students at the AAA is to be stopped for now and the Immigration has also been instructed to issuing student visas for foreign students. 

An audit of AAA has previously been conducted. The CAA has previously noted a number of issues identified from the audits in 2019 and 2020 even. A period of three months was provided to the AAA to correct the issues, which was to no avail. 

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