A DAP Youth leader has criticised education minister Fadhlina Sidek’s offer of incentives to schools if they can show a perfect record of zero-bullying cases.
Sarawak DAP Youth treasurer Wong King Yii warned that this could breed a culture of silence for the sake of obtaining the incentives.
He expressed concern that schools would sweep bullying cases under the carpet instead of tackling them.
Wong said the initiative would not help rebuild the trust of students but would instead lead to more fear, silence victims and embolden bullies further.
“Students have already lost much of their trust in a school system that was supposed to protect them in the first place. To pretend that zero reported cases equals safety is to deny the experiences of countless victims.
“This policy will pressure schools to suppress complaints instead of resolving them, all to protect a ‘perfect record’,” he said in a statement.
Wong urged the ministry to take action on bullying reports filed via the Aduan Buli portal and for the police to be called in for cases involving physical assault.
He also suggested that students who suffered from bullying should be given the right to transfer to another school.
During a visit to a school in Taiping, Perak, on Sunday, Fadhlina was reported to have said she would give incentives to the school if it successfully achieved a “zero-bullying” record.
This followed a spate of bullying cases in schools, including in the death of Form 1 student Zara Qairina Mahathir.
Home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail told the Dewan Rakyat yesterday that the probe into Zara’s death had revealed elements of bullying, neglect and sexual harassment.
Last week, the education ministry said it would review its SOPs on school safety and for handling disciplinary issues, including bullying, while the Aduan Buli portal would be revamped to allow for anonymous reports to be filed.
