Review education system, Selangor MPs, assemblymen tell ministry - Free Malaysia Today
PETALING JAYA: Eleven Selangor MPs and 27 assemblymen have urged the education ministry to review the education system and policies to ensure a conducive and safe environment for students in school.
This comes following developments surrounding schoolgirl Ain Husniza Saiful Nizam, who had revealed how a teacher had made inappropriate rape jokes recently.
The joint statement said the handling of Ain’s case showed gender inequality and injustice in the education system.
“There is definitely a miscarriage of justice. The person who dares to voice up against such culture gets penalised by her own school while the teacher who made the joke and the student who made the rape threats against Ain both get away with not even a slap on the wrist.
“Ain has been denied her school education and is now forced to possibly move to another school. Yet the school has ignored Ain’s education rights and has not made attempts to ensure the environment is safe for her to return to school.
“This is unacceptable as children will take the cue from their educators and rape jokes will be normalised,” they said.
The signatories include former deputy prime minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, former deputy international trade and industry minister Ong Kian Ming and MPs Tony Pua (Damansara), Charles Santiago (Klang), Maria Chin Abdullah (Petaling Jaya) and Wong Chen (Subang).
They said there was an urgent need to raise awareness on gender sensitivity among teachers and students.
“A Gender Equality Act as proposed by Pakatan Harapan must be in place to ensure our girls and boys are protected,” their statement added.
The MPs and assemblymen also called on the education ministry to speak up on the issue and take action against the school’s principal for allegedly leaving negative comments against Ain on Facebook.
Ain was allegedly described as a “child of the devil wearing a headscarf” (“anak setan pakai tudung”) on Facebook, sparking more uproar among netizens as they called for the ministry to take action.
“Intentionally or not, her comments have further given licence to other educators and students to view jokes about violence against women as acceptable as well as to demean anyone who dares to question the status quo,” they said.
“The education ministry, in its response, did not make any mention of Ain’s case but only focused on the issue of period checks on girls. The ministry is expected to ensure justice is served but has chosen to ignore the elephant in the room.”