Education Dept To Take Action Against Sabah School For Segregating Students

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Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching says once corrective action has been taken, the principal will be ‘transferred to another assignment by the Education Department’.KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Education Department has been instructed by the education ministry to take remedial action after news broke out that a school principal has decided to segregate Form One students according to their religions
Responding to media queries today, Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching said the department had informed her that education officers will visit the secondary school tomorrow to assist with “corrective action”
“Once the corrective action has been taken, the principal will be transferred to another assignment by the department,” she said
The department, she said, has already prepared a report on the issue
Teo added that she was appalled by the whole affair as she believed it did not help in the government’s efforts to nurture mutual respect in a multicultural society
Such segregation, she said, is akin to segregating students based on ethnic groups
“This decision can only be taken by a narrow-minded school management. The goal, which was to simplify class activities, should not trump over the bigger agenda, namely unity,” she said
Yesterday, FMT reported that Form One students in the secondary school in Kota Kinabalu had been placed in classes according to their religions
The segregation exercise started in January with four classes reserved for non-Muslim students and two more for Muslim students
This arrangement is supposed to be in place for the next three years
An online petition against the school, launched three days ago, has collected more than 12,300 signatures
The school principal was recorded in a video explaining the reasons for the new system, which among others included the students’ safety, lack of classrooms for Islamic Education classes and complaints from students confused over where their classes were being held
Other students in Form Two to Form Five are in the normal class system. - FMT

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