‘Tiada Guru’ aims to shatter silence, impunity around Sabah’s truant teachers

 

A group of activists comprising students, parents and teachers have formally launched a campaign to pressure the government to address extreme teacher absenteeism in Sabah.

Dubbed the “Tiada Guru” (no teacher) campaign, they want to raise awareness of the long-standing problem and encourage public discussion about it.

The campaign contends that extreme teacher absenteeism contributes to education and socio-economic inequality in Sabah, which continues to suffer the highest poverty rate in the country.

Speaking to Malaysiakini, Tiada Guru spokesperson Fiqah Roslan said the campaign was inspired by Siti Nafirah Siman, the former SMK Taun Gasi student who in 2018 sued her Form 4 English teacher Jainal Jamran for allegedly failing to show up for seven months of classes.

The Kota Belud native’s case is currently awaiting trial at the Kota Kinabalu High Court.

Fiqah, who hails from Sabah, said Tiada Guru aims to shatter the culture of impunity around extreme teacher absenteeism.

“This issue of teacher absenteeism is not new, this is something that has been ongoing for a very long time and it is in fact very serious [...]

“Because it has not been addressed in this way or at this scale before this, that's why absentee teachers have been able to get away with things like this.

“In naming this problem, talking about it and making it public, it is sort of telling people enough is enough and we can no more let the students suffer,” she explained.

The campaign has a website as well as a social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Telegram.

Tiada Guru said extreme teacher absenteeism has been happening for more than 30 years, pointing to a UKM study from 1987 that looked at the issue.

Back in 2000, Parti Bersatu Sabah had issued a press statement calling on the Education Ministry to solve “the perennial problem of absenteeism among teachers in rural schools”.

In 2017, then education minister Mahdzir Khalid said absenteeism from work was the biggest disciplinary problem faced by the ministry. He shared how one ministry staff in a rural school was fired after failing to show up for work for five years (2,002 days).

According to Fiqah, Tiada Guru is run by a grassroots team in Sabah comprising teaching professionals and education ministry officials who are unable to publicly associate themselves with the campaign due to prohibitive clauses in their employment contracts.

Parents and students, current and former, are also part of the campaign team.

Aside from pushing Putrajaya to take action against absentee teachers, Tiada Guru’s other spokesperson Sharmila Sekaran hoped the campaign will inspire more to be like Siti Nafirah Siman by coming forward to tell their stories.

“We want to encourage the grassroots - parents and students - to also join the campaign and say ‘this is happening to me and this is why it’s serious’.

“We want to get people to come forward,” said the Voice of the Children NGO chairperson to Malaysiakini. - Mkini