KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 7 — Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid explained today that the standard operating procedure for teachers accused of misconduct is to relieve them from active duty in classrooms pending investigations.
Such teachers will instead be sent to the district education office, he told the Dewan Rakyat, amid scrutiny over the disciplinary process in the case of a teacher who is alleged to have molested nine students at a Hulu Selangor school earlier this year.
“If say their accusation is true, they will most likely be placed in the district’s education office for good but depending on the severity of offence,” he said in his ministerial reply on Budget 2017.
Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo then asked if such procedure was adhered to when investigating the case of said primary school teacher.
“Yes, we look at all aspects of the case and the SOP was practised in that case as well,” Mahdzir replied.
Mahdzir later told reporters that if the teacher were found innocent of the allegations, he would then be allowed back into the classroom.
“But not the same school... if the teacher comes from School A, then we will send him School B,” he said in the Parliament lobby, without explaining the mechanism of the process.
In the case of the teacher in Hulu Selangor, Mahdzir said the police have since cleared him of the allegations, which was why the Education Ministry allowed him to return to active teaching but at a different school.
Mahdzir previously said his ministry recorded 15 cases of teachers molesting students between 2010 and last month.
