AMPANG – Despite the education minister’s promise, no one from the ministry has come to check on the welfare of the Year 5 pupil, who has been diagnosed with a disability after being forced to stand in the hot sun for hours by his teacher as punishment, said the family’s lawyer, Dinesh Muthal.
“Nobody called from the ministry. No representatives of the ministry have been sent to check on the boy’s condition. No one contacted the family to inquire about (the boy’s) school or to ask what happened,” he told Scoop in an interview at the pupil’s home at Apartment Mesra Prima, here.
Dinesh said the ministry had not been in touch with the family since the incident on April 30, when the boy was punished after classmates threw water bottles at each other, one of which hit him.
He and two other pupils were punished by being forced to stand in the sun, but while the other two were eventually called in, the boy was made to stand outside from 10am to about 12.50pm.
“The ministry could have contacted me or the family’s spokesman, S. Dayalan, to reach out to them. But no one from the ministry contacted us,” Dinesh added.
Dayalan, who chairs a civil society group called the Malaysia-Singapore Workers Task Force, has been acting as the family’s spokesman at recent press conferences.
On May 31, Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said the ministry was committed to ensuring the welfare of the Year 5 pupil, and that it would not compromise on teachers who abuse their powers or have disciplinary issues.
Prior to her statement, Ampang Jaya district police chief Mohd Azam Ismail said the investigation paper on the incident, which was opened under the Child Act 2001, had been referred to the deputy public prosecutor’s office.
The pupil’s father, Suresh Balakrishna, 40, who does odd jobs and is the B40 family’s sole breadwinner, said his son has not been to school since April 30.
No one from the school has come to ask about the son’s absence, not even his teachers. Instead, the school sent three warning letters, each dated May 23, to the boy’s mother, A.D. Mogahana Selvi, via WhatsApp on the same day.
Dinesh said this procedure was wrong, as schools are supposed to send three warning letters in stages before a student is expelled for absenteeism.
He said the Hulu Langat district education office has stepped in and stopped the school from sending the expulsion letter since the matter has become a police case.
He has also called for the teacher’s sacking. The lawyer provided the name of the school and the teacher involved, but Scoop is withholding the names.
Suresh said the family is currently able to cope with his son’s medical fees since he was admitted and treated at the Ampang Hospital, a public healthcare facility.
“However, no aid or help has been given by the ministry,” he added.
Suresh said his son has changed and still seems fearful over the incident.
He once saw his son awake and staring out of a window at 3am. When he told the boy to go back to sleep, his son replied: “I’m scared, the teacher is coming.”
“He used to sleep with his older brothers, but now he chooses to sleep alone in a corner. He even talks to himself sometimes, ever since this thing happened,” Suresh said.
In a previous press conference, the family’s spokesman, Dayalan, said that the boy was assessed by Ampang Hospital as a person with disabilities (PwD) as a result of his heatstroke, which included a “nerve condition”.
Dinesh also told Scoop that the boy’s doctor at Ampang Hospital had just signed a letter allowing him to obtain a PwD identification card from the Social Welfare Department on Friday, June 7.
The doctor also advised the family to enrol the boy in the Integrated Special Education Programme for pupils with disabilities, which is run in certain government schools, once he received his PwD identification card. – June 9, 2024