PUTRAJAYA – The Education Ministry (MoE) will review the guidelines on the selection of speakers for programmes in schools, including motivational sessions, says Senior Education Minister Datuk Radzi Jidin.
Speaking to the media after attending the Education Transformation: Safe and Conducive Education Infrastructure event here today, Radzi said that among the things that would be fine-tuned was the level of freedom given to the schools in choosing the external speakers they invited.
“If we don't monitor, there are more than 10,000 schools, and we are going to see various approaches used by schools for motivation programmes.
“If we specify everything, then they will say that the ministry wants to control everything, why not give autonomy to schools? This is the challenge that we are facing,” he said, commenting on the recently reported cases of sexual abuse involving an independent speaker.
The male celebrity who was arrested by police on Thursday in Selangor, was believed to have met his victims at a motivational programme at school. So far, six police reports have been reportedly lodged against the man who has been remanded for six days until September 14.
Radzi said the existing guidelines and circulars would continue to be enforced and applied until the specific guidelines were developed.
“We have to find the right balance…in each of these matters, we have to conduct research before we decide on anything,” he said.
Radzi said MoE takes the issue seriously, and, at the same time, wants to ensure that schools are a safe place for students.
“All schools have good intentions. They want to get speakers from various contexts to give motivation to these students, but sometimes, cases like the one being raised can occur,” he said. – Bernama, September 12, 2022
