KPM lodges police report on viral issue of teacher transfer

PUTRAJAYA: The Education Ministry has lodged a police report on the issue that went viral on the social media about a teacher who was unhappy about the transfer process.

In a statement issued yesterday, the ministry said it viewed the allegations made in the viraled message seriously as it involved the integrity of its officers.

The ministry hoped the police would conduct a thorough investigation into the report which was made at the Precinct 7 Police Station, Putrajaya about the persons who made the accusation and spread it on the social media.

“At the same time, the ministry will also conduct an internal investigation into the matter,” it said. It also advised teachers who wanted to apply for transfers to deal with the ministry and not with outside parties.

He said the process of approval for a teacher transfer was based on three main criteria, namely the need for the service, vacancy and the options in schools in the requested state.

“Among the reasons which would qualify a person’s request for transfer are chronic illness, threat to safety, accompanying the spouse, length of service in a school as well as other reasonable factors,” it said.

It added that teachers were allowed to apply for transfer once a year through the e- GTukar line from Feb 18 to March 25 this year, and the decisions were made by a Teacher Transfer Committee at the Ministry.

During this period, 25,332 teachers applied for transfers and for the June 2018 session, applications from 2,133 teachers or 8.42 per cent were approved, comprising 1,257 primary school and 876 secondary school teachers.

The reasons given for the applications for transfers which were approved were accompanying the spouse ( 951), length of service ( 387), other reasons ( 368), chronic illness (219), mutual application (168) and safety threat (40), the statement said.