SOMETHING is really amiss in the way a senior teacher was investigated for punishing a 13-year-old pupil in a secondary school in Tasik Glugor, Penang recently.
The Sebarang Perai Utara (SPU) district education department hastily conducted an investigation by calling several witnesses who denied that the pupilwas punished.
These witnesses denied that the pupil was forced to kneel down with her hands raised for wearing improper shoes, the holy thread or kayiru was removed and the pottu or ash was erased from her forehead.
Thus, on the basis of the testimonies of these several witnesses, the education department prematurely concluded that the punishments meted to the student were not true.
However, the district education department did not see the need to talk to the parents. Why! This one-sided interview of the witnesses renders the findings of the education department invalid or questionable.
More so, the senior teacher who allegedly inflicted the punishment on the pupil had lodged a police report. In her report, she claimed that the allegations of the student were not true.
Anyway, I am glad to hear that the police will not be guided by the premature findings of the district education department.
The triple punishment meted to the student is criminal in nature. The teacher concerned might have denied the allegations, but the stark truth is that the student was traumatised by the episode.
The father of the child by the name of Mohan could not accept the fact that his daughter was subjected to an inhuman treatment by the senior teacher. I was informed that the girl was a good student who was recently transferred from a school in Kulim, Kedah to the present school in Tasik Gelugor.
Schools are meant to educate and take care of the security of pupils. Teachers are there to guide pupils but certainly not to act as bullies and tyrants.
I will be writing to the caretaker minister of education to suspend the teacher before the police could conclude their investigation.
Religious intolerant
More broadly, shaming the said pupil in the school assembly was something that no civilised teacher would do. More than this, the student’s holy thread around her wrist was cut and her pottu was forcibly erased.
Are there anything in the school’s rules that stipulates that Hindu students cannot tie their holy thread around their wrist or have pottu on their forehead?
I shudder to think of the future of national schools in the country where some overzealous teachers take rules and regulations into their own hands to humiliate and persecute students especially those of the non-Muslim faith.
I would like to know what the caretaker minister of education going to do about this matter. Is he going to accept the distorted findings of the official investigation by the education department authorities in Penang?
What happened to the poor student is not an aberration. There are so many incidents in the recent past in schools of racism and religious discrimination.
Yet there is continuous clamour among certain extremists for the closure of vernacular schools. There is little wonder why national schools are becoming less and less popular to Indian and Chinse students.
Is it a wonder why Mandarin and Tamil schools have become more popular? Do we blame non-Malay parents for sending their children to vernacular or even international schools?
What is happening to the education system in the country? – Nov 4, 2022
Prof Ramasamy Palanisamy is the state assemblyperson for Perai. He is also Deputy Chief Minister II of Penang.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Main pic credit: Malaysiakini
