Survey: 44pct report witnessing teachers making sexually provocative jokes

 

Women aged between 18 and 30 years old regularly face sexual harassment, with 44 percent of respondents in a recent survey having witnessed a teacher making sexually provocative jokes. 

While 45 percent of the respondents claimed they have not witnessed sexually provocative jokes by a teacher, 11 percent were uncertain if they had the experience.

The preliminary survey was launched by the Centre for Governance and Political Studies (Cent-GPS) - a Kuala Lumpur based political science and social behavioural research firm - in collaboration with the All Women’s Action Society (Awam) and ran from Aug 24 to Sept 15.

Some 57 percent of survey respondents also said that they experienced verbal sexual harassment on a regular basis when walking on the streets, whereas 22 percent have experienced it at least once.

When asked whether they had to change their travel route or routines due to fear of being sexually harassed, 71 percent said yes, 26 percent said no and three percent were uncertain.

More than half of those survey also expressed concern for their safety when doing solo activities, with 52 percent saying that they did not feel safe watching movies on their own in the cinema and 68 percent did not feel safe driving alone at night.

Cent-GPS said that despite it only being a preliminary survey, they hoped that these results would be an eye-opener for the nation’s leaders and the male population.

“Regrettably, many men will never relate to the fear of watching a movie alone or having to drive alone at night.

“We live in two separate worlds, where the normal activities of half the population become a privilege for the other half,” it added.

The survey respondents had completed the survey through a computer-assisted personalised interview method in a language of their preference - either English or Malay.

Out of the 1,056 respondents, 79 percent were Malay and 21 percent were non-Malay with 78 percent earning a monthly income below RM2,000 and 15 percent earning between RM2,001-RM4,000, 4 percent earned between RM4,001 -RM6,000 and 3 percent earned more than RM6,001.

Respondents were selected through random sampling along the lines of state, ethnicity and level of income.

The full results of the survey can be found on the Cent-GPS website.

On April 24, Form 5 student Ain Husniza Saiful Nizam posted a video on TikTok where she said a male teacher had made jokes about rape during a physical and health education class, prompting widespread outrage on social media. 

This included allegedly telling the boys in the class that if they want to commit rape, they should target those above 18.

Since going public with her story, Ain has gained supporters but also suffered criticisms and threats. Her case also led to the #makeschoolasafeplace movement.

In August, Ain was served with a defamation suit and police probe over the expose. - Mkini