KUALA LUMPUR: Steps to keep students safe in schools are not enough yet, says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, days after a Form Four student was found dead at her school in Johor.
The Prime Minister said 5,681 bullying cases were reported in schools from January to August this year, and the real figure was certainly higher.
Anwar said the Education Ministry had put in place measures ranging from hostel monitoring and safety audits to counselling and mental health support.
“Is it enough? Not yet,” he said during Prime Minister’s Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday (Oct 6).
He cited the case of Irene Sofiya Mohd Khairool Faisal, 16, as the latest, following that of Zara Qairina Mahathir in Sabah last year and others in Kelantan, Selangor and Negri Sembilan.
Some of the children died while others were seriously hurt or had tried to take their own lives, he said.
Anwar said although the Yong Peng school where Irene Sofiya was killed had CCTV cameras, they were not installed at the spot of the crime scene.
He commended the police for acting firmly, saying arrests had been made and prosecution now rested with the Attorney General’s Chambers.
He said parents must also play their part, questioning how some did not even know whether their children had come home.
“I don’t mean to blame parents, but the family unit must be the foundation. A nation stands on strong family units,” he said.
Indera Mahkota MP Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah, who raised the question, said many problems would be solved if the Education Ministry answered like the Prime Minister.
But there seemed to be a lack of urgency and leadership on the issue, he said, without naming anyone.
Saifuddin said he had asked eight questions on Zara Qairina’s case in the august House on July 30 last year, but the three that touched on schools went unanswered.
“We are not out to bash anyone. We want to help. But what we got was ‘don’t disturb us, don’t touch our teachers and our schools’. Come on,” he said.
In reply, Anwar said the measures might not have been fully explained.
“Urgency must be there. There were weaknesses early on when we handled the Zara Qairina case, and we must learn from that,” he said.
He said 5,107 guidance and counselling teachers had been added and 400 wardens trained, while police had been formally allowed to enter schools at any time.
Another RM15mil would be set aside next year for CCTV cameras at 1,000 schools, he added.
Anwar also agreed with the police that schools must not hide cases.
“They hide it to protect the school’s good name without thinking of the harm to the child. That is not proper education,” he said.
Replying to Sri Gading MP Datuk Aminolhuda Hassan on getting parents to attend parent-teacher association meetings, Anwar proposed that aid, which were now paid into parents’ bank accounts be handed out at schools instead.
That way, parents would have to come to school and meet teachers, he said.
