KUALA LUMPUR: Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek has clarified that her ministry’s director general's recent “sweep under carpet” remark has been misunderstood.
She said that the remark was not implying that the ministry or schools themselves were concealing cases of bullying or sexual harassment. It was instead referring to school officials who had inadvertently perceived the cases as minor, leading to less stringent intervention measures.
“As a result of this perception, the initial intervention taken might be light.
“This is what troubles us, as this usually leads to the cases not being given their due attention.
“This then leads to us being unable to investigate or carry out interventions fully, leading some of the cases to persist, which results in even worse consequences,” she told the Dewan Rakyat during Minister Question Time on Thursday (Oct 16).
This comes after Education director-general Dr Mohd Azam Ahmad urged schools not to ignore cases of misconduct, including sexual harassment and bullying, on Tuesday (Oct 14).
In doing so, he seemingly hinted that schools had been concealing such cases in his remark.
“If everything is swept under the carpet, it will never be resolved.
"This phenomenon is like a thorn in the flesh, or an atomic bomb waiting to explode,” he said.
