Are schools safe for children? By Mariam Mokhtar

Malaysiakini : COMMENT | Parents willingly put their trust in teachers to nurture and educate their children, and school would be the last place where parents expect teachers to abuse this trust.

So, are schools safe for children?

You’d like to think so, but not if you were to ask Mogahana Selvi, the mother whose 11-year-old son had been forced to stand under the scorching sun for close to three hours on 30 April.

A similar negative response would be given by a group of 10- and 11-year-old pupils of a school in Ayer Baloi. When they discovered their 48-year-old male teacher smoking in a storeroom, their teacher ended up slapping, punching, strangling and swearing at them.

It is also doubtful that the 18-year-old vocational college student, whose teacher whipped him 10 times with a cane for not attending tarawih prayers, would consider school a safe haven.

Only naïve Malaysians would think that nothing untoward would happen in a religious school. Recently, many students lodged police reports alleging that their 39-year-old ustaz had sodomised them.

These cases form the tip of the iceberg and it is highly likely that for every case that is reported, many other children suffer in silence.

Perhaps, the child will have been warned about repercussions. Perhaps their parents opted not to report the crime, as they do not wish to bring shame to themselves, their families and the community.

Read the article in full here.......

OCT : Children goes to school to gain knowledge and to be leaders in the future for Malaysia. Knowledge gained remains within the students. Nobody can take the Knowledge away. Knowledge must be taught in a holistic way without encumberances, politics and religion.

The syllabus in the schools are mostly religious with little emphasis on other subjects. Most teachers don't take pride and passion in teaching but to conduct own business. There was a case where the English teacher was absent to teach English for almost a year.

The headmaster and MOE didn't penalised the teacher by turning a blind eye. It took the students to sue the teacher in a civil case else nobody knew about it. No teacher has been fined or found guilty for mistreatment, poor conduct, dereliction of duty and absenteeism. Teachers are transferred to another school if and when they are at fault.

When the teachers don't teach properly and the subjects are more religious, a perfect storm is happening to our education system. It will take at least 2 generations to rectify if the Govt wants to do a reverse but by the look of it, this won't happen for anytime soon

Robbie98 : To leave a 11 year old child in the hot tropical sun of ours for 3 hours is an act of a sadist , he has no business to be a teacher and should be kept far away from schools .

That the other cemerlang teachers or the headmaster of the school did not notice the torture speaks volumes for our ketuanan controlled culture and society . A heady mixture of self serving politicians and religious bigots is bringing the honest law abiding people in our society to their knees .

I hope and pray that the child will recover and become a functioning member of his family and our sociiety .

Sealthedeal : Good article. Now in addition we have attempts to convert minors to Islam without their parents consent. No words can describe that or the other abuses carried out at schools including the DLP outrage.

The long failing education ministry is like other departments like the MCMC and Home Ministry a complete disaster. Madani is a joke. Never again.

TheSidth : Where is PMX in all this issues? Kid gets severely injured and now disabled because a teacher let him out to dry in most wicked and evil manner? Why let other students return to class except him? Surely doctor finding of disability demands court action and jail time?

Why does PMX disappear every time there is a hot issue? Is he under a leash by UMNO ? Where is PMX ? Look at all the cases listed...surely swift action is needed? This UG is rudderless ..we have 2 foriegn ministers with PMX more concerned about his GAZA constituency than PPR poverty in KL Shameful and disgraceful

Commenting has been disabled for this story : We've heard Fadhlina's NATO lip service too many times unfortunately. MCKK bullying case. Kita akan siasat. Tahfiz molest case. Kita akan siasat. Standing under sun case. Kita akan siasat.

Smoking teacher case. Kita akan siasat. Palestine toy gun case. Kita akan siasat. Teacher saying dont vote NM. Kita akan siasat. And many more cases. And all these siasatan doesn't seem to have any timeline or conclusion. Are they hoping that people just forget about it?

Read the rest of the 30 comments+ here.....