MOE to conduct in-depth investigation into rape jokes

Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin said the MOE took the matter seriously and would not tolerate if the incident really happened.

"This has become a police case, but we are also investigating if it really happened and if there is a case, strict and appropriate action will be taken," he said at a special press conference on Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) and Form 3 Assessment (PT3) here today.

He was commenting on the issue of a teenage female student who, through the TikTok application, had alleged that a male teacher made rape jokes in class while discussing the issue of sexual harassment during physical education and health subjects at her school.

Meanwhile on COVID-19 cluster involving the education sector, Radzi said he had asked the Ministry of Health to place education cluster related to the MOE's operations separately as currently COVID-19 cases that had been detected in all institutes of higher learning, state government schools, private schools, maahad tahfiz and others were classified under the education cluster.

"This is to enable the community to get a clear picture on what is really happening in the context of education. If we round all education cluster under one umbrella, it looks as if everything is related to the school," he said.

Asked about the status of the donation of laptops under the Smart Fund in 2021 Budget to facilitate the home-based teaching and learning (PdPR) session, Radzi said that the donation process has begun and so far more than 13,000 units have been distributed to eligible students.

On the grievances of some parents on why the school holidays were not started earlier, Radzi said MOE would continue to follow the existing school calendar.

"We have more than five million students, 500,000 teachers, who have their own families so it's a big ecosystem that's why we try to maintain the school calendar and find the best approach," he said.

Earlier, the MOE announced that the home-based learning session after the Aidilfitri holiday will continue with PdPR for two weeks to replace the face-to-face session at school.