KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 — Parents should not harass teachers on social media or bring potential weapons into school grounds, said the National Union of the Teaching Profession Malaysia (NUTP).
The two items were part of a preview of the group’s upcoming code of ethics for parents and guardians when dealing with educators.
NUTP president Kamarozaman Abd Razak said the guidelines were being developed through discussions involving his group and other stakeholders including education NGOs and others.
“There will be 15 do’s and eight don’ts in the ethics code. We will mention three today,” he said during the press conference at NUTP’s headquarters.
Aside from the aforementioned two restrictions, the third item shared was a recommendation for parents and guardians to first refer to an institution’s head teacher or principal if they have issues with any teachers.
Failure to adhere to the guidelines would entitle the school to contact the police for assistance in dealing with offending parents, he said.
“It is always best to speak to the school’s principal or administrator if they are concerned their children are being punished for unclear reasons, rather than go all the way to file a police report right away,” he said.
He explained that lodging a formal report before meeting school authorities may escalate tensions and lead to teachers being suspended prematurely or even sacked.
But he stressed that the code was not meant to protect teachers who physically abuse students, saying neither the NUTP nor the guidelines would defend abusive educators.
The union is currently finalising the other guidelines for submission to the Education Ministry.
He said NUTP formulated the code based on examples from other countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, and India.
These have been suitably modified for Malaysian society, he said when adding they were hoping it can be implemented by this year.
NUTP began formulating the ethics code in 2016, with input from organisations and NGOs including the Parent Action Group for Education, the Malaysian Crime Prevention Foundation, the Parent-Teacher Association, UNI-Malaysia Labour Centre, the Tun Hussein Onn Teachers Foundation, as well as the police.
The code’s guidelines come in the wake of recent events involving teachers and parents, such as the case at Nilai in April last year when 44-year old SK Taman Semarak teacher Azizan Manap disciplined an 11-year old pupil for skipping classes and sniffing glue.
In October he was ordered to appear in court to face charges of hurting the student. Following public outcry he was discharged not amounting to an acquittal by a magistrate’s court in Seremban on Dec 20.
