Witness: Sabah Education Dept knew of truant teacher since 2015

The Sabah Education Department had known since 2015 about the case of a teacher in the state who was accused of skipping classes, an officer of the department told the court today.

Fazli Abdul Rozan, was at the time serving as the assistant director-general of the English language unit of the department’s academic management sector.

He said he received a complaint that year about the failure of teacher Jainal Jamran to attend his classes.

However, he said when the complaint was made at a meeting of the English Teaching Assistant (ETA) Fulbright program, there was no supporting document to prove the allegation.

He was speaking during the trial of a lawsuit by former SMK Taun Gusi student Siti Nafirah Siman against Jainal at the Kota Kinabalu High Court this afternoon.

Fazli, who is the plaintiff’s eighth witness, said the complaint about Jainal was made by two educators named Ibrahim Jadoon and Nurhaizah Ejab. The latter was also a teacher at SMK Taun Gusi at the time.

Fazli said the meeting was actually to discuss the issue of teachers who did not cooperate in the ETA Fulbright program and not about Jainal’s absence from class.

Nevertheless, he said he acted on the complaint of Ibrahim and Nurhaizah by requesting an officer from the District Education Office to investigate their allegations.

During cross-examination, federal lawyer Fazriel Fardianshah Abdul Kadir asked Fazli whether he informed Ibrahim and Nurhaizah about the procedure that should be taken following the issue of the first defendant.

“We had informed the ETA school coordinators, we explained about the procedures of any complaints made,” he said in response.

“It should be directed to the school administration and PPD. The school administration and the PPD needs to resolve for them; if not, PPD and JPN will refer to the integrity unit,” he added.

‘Meeting not to scare ex-student’

Meanwhile, Fazli, who is now the senior assistant director-general of the planning and management sector of the Sabah Education Department, also denied that the order for Nurhaizah and Jainal to transfer schools was related to this case.

Later, when questioned by the plaintiff’s lawyer Shireen Sikayun, Fazli admitted he was instructed by the former Sabah education director, Maimunah Suhaibul, to contact Siti Nafirah in November 2018.

However, he denied that the purpose of meeting Siti Nafirah was to scare her off from continuing the lawsuit.

Siti Nafirah was a student at SMK Taun Gusi in 2015.

On Oct 30, 2018, she filed a lawsuit against her teacher Jainal for allegedly skipping classes for seven months in 2015.

In addition to Jainal, she also named the school principal when the case occurred, SMK Taun Gusi, the district education officer of Kota Belud, the director of education of Sabah, the director-general of education, the minister of education, and the government of Malaysia as defendants.

She claimed Jainal’s failure to attend English classes, as well as the second defendant’s failure to take reasonable steps to address the matter, resulted in the 4PD students being unprepared for the examinations set by or under the Education Act 1996.

The trial of the case will continue tomorrow. - Mkini