Seeking Justice for Teachers

Seeking Justice for Teachers

By Stephen Ng

In Kuala Selangor, a teacher from a Tamil primary school complained that she had been threatened and embarrassed by her school principal in front of other teachers.

In her police report, the 28-year-old lady mentioned that she had accidentally injured herself while the quarrel was going on.

In the incident which happened on Oct 3, she wrote in her report that the principal had allegedly used the words, ‘to take revenge’ on her.

Under such circumstances, I would be surprised if the principal is allowed to continue helming the school. He does not set a good example for the children and other teachers.

Meanwhile, in Sibu, Sarawak, another video clip showing a headmaster yelling at a pregnant teacher has also gone viral after it was posted on Facebook on Sept 27.

This has brought to the attention of the civil society the stress that teachers have to bear under unreasonable superiors.

While mooting the idea of allowing teachers to evaluate their superiors, Education Minister Maszlee Malik and his deputy, Teo Nie Ching would do well if they had paid more serious attention to existing cases of principals bullying their teachers.

This is already happening in schools, leading to several cases of suicides in the past.

One week has already passed, and the report from the district education office (PPD) is still not submitted to the ministry. Teo, in a news report, said she is still waiting for the investigation report.

Depending on its local district education office to investigate would not do, as we have seen in the past, teachers have ended up becoming the victims, instead of the school principals. I hope the Sibu case would turn out differently.

I have recommended to Maszlee the need to set up an independent team consisting of stakeholders to investigate such cases alongside the PPD officers. People who are well-informed about the issues affecting Chinese primary schools such as Jiazhong are the best people to be appointed to the committee.

This would provide a fairer outcome of the investigation instead of solely depending on the PPD report. An independent report would allow Maszlee and Teo to get a clearer picture of what transpired on the ground.

Teachers should also have a channel within the ministry that they can bring their complaints to as whistleblowers.

In my son’s school, I have seen teachers being victimised when the fault lies with the principal herself. In a caning incident where a boy was caned 12 times, three teachers were re-shuffled all because I pointed out that the caning incident was not an isolated case. Despite my objections, the teachers remained the victims.

The fact that there were other teachers who were pressured to collect the security and PIBG fees by a certain deadline clearly shows that the pressure came from the top. But, when left to the discretion of the Director of Selangor Education Department, the teachers became the scapegoats.

In another case in the same school, a teacher was transferred to another school which also had an equally unreasonable principal. As a result, the teacher went into depression and absconded from her classes.  

I urge the Ministry of Education to pay more attention to bullying cases involving school principals and teachers.

Issues like this must be addressed urgently and with care. We cannot afford to have more of such cases to leave a black mark on our education system.

In the Sibu case, the headmaster should not be allowed to continue on with his job. Both the teachers should be given the protection by the Ministry, instead of being victimised further.

In any case, whether it involves a school teacher or an office clerk, there is no excuse the way the Headmaster shouted at the top of his voice to a pregnant lady. The whistleblower Venice Kiing who uploaded the video did it because he felt an injustice is done.

I have heard on the grapevine that if the investigation is carried out by the PPD, the usual outcome is that both teachers will be faulted, and never the headmasters.

Let us see if Maszlee and Teo would do what is right, despite the recommendations from the ground.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008. After May 9, 2018, he is now involved in contributing ideas towards rebuilding of the nation.