Parents and teachers: What’s the criteria for listing?

KUALA LUMPUR: Parents and teachers are still in the dark over the cause of schools being included in the recently leaked “hotspot” list.

The Parent Action Group for Education Malaysia chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim said the Government should release more details regarding the criteria of being marked as a “hotspot” school.

“We are all guessing what the criteria is. I think the Education Ministry needs to come out to clarify and do damage control,” she told The Star.

Of the 402 schools, 311 were under Category 1 for disciplinary problems and 91 under Category 3 for disciplinary and drug issues.

A former senior discipline teacher said renowned schools which consistently record and report disciplinary data to the ministry, may have landed themselves in the list.

“Schools have to provide data to the department frequently such as attendance, punctuality and other minor disciplinary issues like appearance.

“Schools that are vigilant, systematic and are not covering up matters have sort of dug their own graves.”

The teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, was formerly with an affluent school named in the leaked list of “hotspots”.

She told parents not to worry as it is normal for schools to have a few problematic students.

“There are hundreds and thousands of students in each school. Even a family of three kids is not totally untainted of issues.”

Based on her experience as a disciplinary teacher for nearly 10 years, she said parents should not overreact.

“I guess parents are not being objective. If they use their common sense, they should know where each school stands.

“There’s never been a batch that’s all good or a batch that’s all bad. Students grow up and kids will always be kids,” she said.

Meanwhile, a 16-year-old student from SM USJ 12 expressed shock that his school was in the list.

“I’m surprised because ours is gazetted as a cluster school and discipline is very strict.”

He said that metal detectors were even installed at the school’s entrance to detect mobile devices and sharp objects.

“We can’t even bring a sharpie (marker pen) to school as it could lead to vandalism. There’s also a lot of surprise spot checks.”

Cluster schools are defined as excellent schools within an existing grouping, and each is supposed to be a role model for other schools.