Dept to probe teacher who allegedly skipped classes

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Education Department is probing the case of a teacher in Kota Belud who allegedly skipped classes for about seven months in 2015.

“This has become a court case, so I cannot comment further but rest assured we are doing what is necessary,” said department director Datuk Maimunah Suhaibul.

Investigations are being conducted at the moment, she said when contacted, in reference to the case of a former secondary school student who had filed court papers at the Kota Kinabalu High Court on Oct 16 alleging that the teacher had not come to teach English in her Form Four class back in 2015.

Sabah Education and Innovation Minister Datuk Dr Yusof Yacob said he was personally concerned about the allegations.

“I am monitoring this case closely,” he said although his ministry was not directly involved in it.

“This is under the state Education Department and Education Ministry at the federal level,” he said.

Asked whether they would be looking at other similar cases which were supposedly raised with the department in the past, Dr Yusof said “yes”.

“This bad habit of teachers or other government officers who skipped work is not new,” he said.

He said there were clear guidelines for action on government servants who skipped work.

Former student Siti Nafirah Siman, now 19, had said that the teacher's absence was a violation of her rights as a student as it was a teacher's duty to teach.

In her statement of claim, she said that the teacher did not come to class from February 2015 for his assigned task to teach English and that he remained absent till November of that year except for about a week in October 2015.