Education Ministry waiting for full report on fight in school

IPOH: The Ministry of Education (MOE) is waiting for a detailed report on a fight between two groups of students at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Sungai Pelek in Sepang, Selangor which has gone viral on social media since yesterday.

Deputy Education Minister, Datuk Dr. Mah Hang Soon said this was to enable the ministry to investigate the matter before taking any appropriate action.

"We have not received a detailed report on the incident and further investigation is required to obtain complete information on it before action is taken," he said after launching the Accelerated School Leaders Initiative (ASLI) programme, here, today.

The fight was reported to have occurred at 10.30 am after the two groups of students were believed to have been mocking each other.

Dr. Mah hoped that harmony and mutual respect could be promoted more actively in schools to build good character towards preventing bullying and fights among students

On the viraled issue of a school canteen not being opened in the month of Ramadan in order to train the students to fast and to respect those who fast, Dr. Mah said he had contacted the director-general of Education, Datin Seri Nor Zamani Abdol Hamid for further action.

"To me, we should respect the students who fast while we also should not prevent those of other religions to buy food from the school canteen.

"When the non-Muslim parents were asked on this, it was said that many of the (non-Muslim) children agreed to bring food from home but after receiving reports from others, the school did not prevent the canteen from operating this month," he said.

-- BERNAMA