‘Help troubled schools avoid negative perception’
MIRI: The State Education Department should focus on helping problematic schools while also curbing the issue of bullying among students.
State National Parent-Teacher Association president Wan Zain Syed Mohdzar said this was because it was vital to improve the image of schools in Sarawak.
“We cannot deny that there are indeed troubled schools across the country, but the government should not allow these schools to be permanently labelled,” he told The Borneo Post yesterday.
According to him, efforts to improve the image of these troubled schools needed to be done more aggressively to avoid these schools being viewed upon negatively by the community.
“Just because of one or two troubled schools, we do not want the community to continue looking at the obscurity of the educational institution but instead, we need to support the improvement of the image of the school,” he said.
Nine schools from Sarawak were recently placed in Category One due to disciplinary problems, while another was placed in Category Three for discipline and drug issues. The 10 schools are within the administrative areas of Kuching, Padawan, Bau, Sri Aman, Miri, Baram, Lawas, Simunjan, Samarahan and Bintulu education offices.
Commenting further, Wan Zain said parents and teachers play an important role in combating indiscipline and drug issues among students.
“Students with issues must be given help to keep them away from repeating the same mistake or being influenced by friends again. Bullying, meanwhile, is not a new issue and I urge family members to cooperate and for the school to be on alert at all times because this is a very serious matter which needs to be resolved,” he said, suggesting that schools organise religious and moral education sessions, as well as motivational camps.