Food selling teacher accused of putting sand in canteen operator’s rice bowl

 

A SHORT clip on TikTok by media.telus (@Media Telus) has highlighted some rather unethical business practices by a school teacher, no less.

The 39-second video which attracted a staggering 1.1 million views shows a stall laden with all manner of goodies purportedly being sold on school grounds by a teacher despite rules forbidding such practices.

The teacher’s budding “entrepreneurship” has apparently upset the school’s canteen operator who lamented this was unfair competition.

The canteen operator further raised the issue of hygiene and health regulations such as the necessary vaccinations required for FnB (food and beverage) workers. This is on top of the fixed costs such as rental and staff wages.

@media.telus

Cikgu tak penat ke berniaga tu? Mengajar lagi, lepas tu nak berniaga lagi. Bagi sajalah tugas jual makanan ni pada orang kantin, bila jadi apa-apa kan dah susah nanti. Kesian pula akak kantin kena bersaing dengan cikgu. Budak mesti suka beli dengan cikgu kan? Kredit: Kim_selat #kantin #sekolah #viral #trending #fyp #foryou #pov #malaysia #beritatiktok #cikgu #makananviral

♬ bunyi asal – Media Telus – Media Telus

It was said the teacher’s actions was akin of “putting sand in one’s rice bowl”. The post also asked the pertinent question where the teacher found the energy to teach if she is busy running a food business.

There was plenty of comments from netizens on the issue which seems to have divided opinion.

A comment apparently by the canteen operator highlights her frustration at the unfair competition that has led to losses.

A netizen said it was simply whether this was allowed.

Another reiterated that the teacher should be focused on the primary task of educating students.

One opined that teachers get to flagrantly ignore rules as they are “kings of the school”.

One netizen, perhaps sarcastically, asked why the teacher had to do part-time business when her salary was already so large.

However, one netizen said both sides need to be heard, pointing out that very often schools had co-operative initiatives or club projects that allowed such enterprises from teachers and/pupils.

Unfortunately, the commenter observed that there was often disagreements with canteen operators in these instances.

Some netizens, however, felt that canteen operators were partly to blame for this phenomenon by serving the same old sub-standard food day in, day out. Another highlighted the need for canteen operators to be more price sensitive.

There were quite a few comments that seem to be from people who were familiar with the canteen operator and the available fare with one equating it to prison food.

A few confirmed their children had frequently complained about the quality of the food being served in the canteen.

One urged the canteen operator to rise to the challenge and to up her game.

This post raises a few issues. Firstly, it is imperative that anyone selling food in schools – whether they are teachers, co-ops or canteen operators – must abide by the Health Ministry’s (MOH) guidelines. Children safety cannot be compromised.

Secondly, if indeed this was a teacher moonlighting in contravention of school regulations, then it has to be stopped as it is unethical. In fact, the headmaster should be made answerable if this is the case.

Thirdly, if this is part of sanctioned school programmes or activities, these need to be highlighted to canteen operators from the outset. The frequency of such activities needs to be clearly spelt out to ensure the canteen operator is not caught unaware by the sudden competition.

Last but not least, this post does highlight the issue of teachers’ wages. If they are busy having to do extra businesses to supplement their meagre income, how are they supposed to teach properly?

One netizen, perhaps, has come up with a solution. 

- focus malaysia