KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 8 — DAP’s Batu Kawan parliamentarian Kasthuri Patto today urged the Education Ministry and other relevant authorities to reward and provide merit for schools that report sexual misconduct and bullying cases.

In a statement, Kasthuri said that there is a need to move away from the culture of “sweeping issues under the carpet” for misconduct in schools, which she said happened during the previous Barisan Nasional administration.

“Schools that report on acts of sexual misconduct and bullying should be rewarded and given merit points for their courage in exposing these monsters, which was something the previous Barisan Nasional government never did and would have no political will in carrying out,” she said.

“This will encourage schools not to take “wait-and-see” attitude in the hopes of the issue going away and report immediately,” she added.

She urged both the Education Ministry and Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) to provide the necessary support for public schools and tahfiz schools who come forward to make reports on certain cases.

“Teachers and schools tend to exercise reluctance in coming out to push for investigations for fear of any action taken against them because their actions had brought ‘shame’ to the school by the PPD (District Education Office), State Education Department or even the Ministry of Education in the past, under Barisan Nasional rule,” she said.

Bullying cases in Malaysian schools came into the limelight after T. Nhaveen, a 18-year-old boy in Penang, passed away following attacks by four alleged bullies in his school in June last year.