TAIPING: The Education Ministry is taking a firm stand against sexual misconduct in educational institutions, says its minister Fadhlina Sidek.
She said the ministry is collaborating with relevant ministries and agencies to address related concerns, such as cybersafety, in a comprehensive manner.
“Any allegations of misconduct must be thoroughly investigated, with firm action taken in accordance with existing guidelines,” she told reporters after launching the National #terimakasihcikgu Mass Movement 2025.
Also present were Deputy Education Minister Wong Kah Woh and the ministry’s director-general Datuk Azman Adnan.
On Saturday, Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching stressed the need for private schools to strengthen their standard operating procedures to handle cases of sexual misconduct, including those involving AI-generated explicit images.
Teo was responding to reports about the circulation of digitally altered obscene images of female students from a private secondary school in Kulai, Johor, which were allegedly being sold online.
She said the school’s administration had been alerted to the issue since last year.
Johor police chief Comm Datuk M. Kumar earlier confirmed that 22 police reports have been filed so far and a 16-year-old boy has been remanded until tomorrow.
The case surfaced after an 18-year-old student lodged a police report upon discovering her face had been used in the explicit images, which later went viral on social media.
The suspect is believed to have sold the edited images for as little as RM2 each.
On another matter, Fadhlina pledged a full and transparent investigation into the death of a 16-year-old student who drowned at a Johor sports school last November, after the boy’s family alleged negligence this month.
Muhammad Zulfan Iqbal Zaiful, a Form Four student and football player at Sekolah Sukan Tunku Mahkota Ismail, died during a school activity.
His family lodged a formal complaint on April 6, calling for accountability.
“This is an incident we take full responsibility for. The investigation will be conducted with transparency and integrity,” Fadhlina said.
