43. Generally the number of women represented internationally remains low. Presently there is one female High Commissioner among a total of 11 High Commissioners and Ambassadors appointed.20 Furthermore, Ministry of Foreign Affairs has 50 international posts abroad and 12 females are represented in such posts.21 Recommendation • Increase number of women representation in diplomatic posts. Article 10: Education Concluding comment: ‐On women’s access to tertiary education, especially for rural women, and diversification of educational choices (CO2007/3, par. 28) 44. Constitution guarantees right to education without any discrimination of any kind. While there are policy initiatives and procedures established by Ministry of Education (MoE); the legislative framework on right to education needs to take effect. Consequently, there is no legal position on provisions such as compulsory education age, compulsory basic level of education etc. 45. While the government maintains comprehensive level of statistics on sex disaggregated data relating to education, there is a necessity to further enhance the information on education system by encompassing data related to school dropout rate, school attendance. It is apparent that some children enrolled in primary and secondary schools in the atolls are not attending schools for reasons such as disabilities of a child, health related issues, poverty and at times due to conservative ideologies.22 However data relating to school dropout rate for Male’ based schools are not available for rapid analysis. There is also a growing concern that, with increase in religious conservatism practices, home based education is sometimes preferred by parents leading to restricting girls’ access to formal education at school..23 46. It is important to mention that government has formulated a policy on inclusive education. Several children with disabilities remain marginalized in the education system due to lack of qualified teachers, facilities and academic programs supporting them, with inefficient capacity for early detection.24. Inadequate budget to implement educational provisions for children with disabilities along with external components such as limited health services especially specialized services are barriers to guarantee this right. In 2013, 43 percent of children in Special Education Needs (SEN) classes were girls.25 There is a need to advance government’s effort to lay down a proper system to Page 15 of 35