GEORGE TOWN: About 200 people gathered outside SMJK(C) Chung Hwa Confucian here to show support for teachers, calling for greater understanding of the challenges they face.
They held placards with slogans expressing solidarity with teachers and urging the public to respect their efforts to teach and shape their students.
Two teachers at the school where they gathered on Sunday (Oct 26) were charged earlier this month with voluntarily causing hurt by allegedly caning a 15-year-old student in 2023.
Social activist and philanthropist Kuan Chee Heng, better known as Uncle Kentang, organised the gathering.
He said the event aimed to remind the public that teachers must be trusted and supported in carrying out their duties.
He said teachers experienced declining morale because of unreasonable expectations and constant scrutiny.
Many, he added, spent more time defending themselves against complaints than teaching.
The gathering included a brief remembrance ceremony for two students whose deaths in separate incidents this year sparked national concern over school safety and student behaviour.
Rallygoers held up electric candles in memory of 13-year-old Sabah schoolgirl Zara Qairina Mahathir, whose death in July triggered a national outcry over alleged bullying, and 16-year-old Yap Shing Xuen, who was fatally stabbed in a Petaling Jaya school recently.
Penang National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) independent adviser Dr Jeremy Kung Chong Min said the education system itself was partly to blame, citing a lack of training for mainstream teachers in handling students with special needs.
Penang NUTP secretary Fadlee Ahmad said the union, which has about 12,000 members in the state, supported teachers who faced prosecution while performing their duties.
On Oct 6, teachers Lau Teik Hwa, 47, and Choong Kean Beng, 59, claimed trial to charges of voluntarily causing hurt by allegedly caning a student said to have special needs.
The case is pending before the court.
