Patriot Wants Govt To Address Perceived Discrimination In Schools

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A veterans group has urged the government to address perceived identity-based discrimination in schools after many participants of a survey said they experienced it.
In a statement today, Persatuan Patriot Kebangsaan (Patriot) expressed alarm at the survey results, saying this indicated that the education system had failed.
Among the findings were that 59 percent of youth respondents (18-30 years old) said they had experienced some form of identity-based discrimination when in school.
This included discrimination due to gender, learning disabilities, race and favouritism.
Respondents across multiple ethnicities - Indian Malaysians (60 percent), non-Malay bumiputera (54 percent), Malay Malaysians (51 percent) and Chinese Malaysians (46 percent) - also reported being discriminated against in school.
Patriot president Mohd Arshad Raji (above) thus called upon the Education Ministry for urgent action, proposing a fact-finding mission and a debate in Parliament.
“Patriot demands immediate action be instituted.
“Fact-finding must be executed and the expose in the (survey) report must be addressed...
“Patriot, therefore, unequivocally demands that this matter must be debated in Parliament. The public needs answers,” he said.
Arshad also suggested that “punitive action” be taken against those found responsible for such discrimination.
“The country needs to reset its education policies (so) that they will specifically tackle any attempt by school authorities and the Education Ministry officials to practice discrimination or impose any form of prejudice on non-bumiputera students.
“Such negative discrimination will only produce undesirable elements as the students leave school,” Arshad added.
The “Discrimination in Education” survey was conducted between Sept 1 and Sept 10 and involved 2,441 school graduates.
It was commissioned by Sekolah Semua, an initiative by youth NGO Architects of Diversity aimed at addressing identity-based discrimination in schools.
The survey was conducted by polling firm Vase.ai.
The full survey report can be found here. - Mkini

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