KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 — Mohd Fadli Mohd Salleh, popularly known as Cikgu Fadli, had brought up a few weaknesses that he had identified within the country’s education system.
The Mathematics teacher at Sekolah Kebangsaan (1) Gombak had noticed a few issues: the Math syllabus was too advanced for primary school students, there were too many students in one class, the students learnt too many subjects, and heavy schoolbags were threatening the development of young students.
He said in a Facebook post that he had gone through the proper channels in airing his complaints at the Gombak District Education Office as well with over 30 mathematics teachers from the Gombak district.
"Despite this being the most correct channel, it had no effect. In fact, it made things even more difficult,” he said.
This led him to air his grievances on social media.
This resulted in him receiving a letter dated September 22 from the chairman of the Education Services Disciplinary Board Support Group (No. 1) of the Education Ministry (MoE), Datuk Yusran Shah Mohd Yusof.
It stated that he is facing disciplinary action for violating Regulation 19(1)(c) of the Public Officer Regulations (Conduct and Discipline) 1993, which states that a public officer may not, through written or verbal means, provide any review on the weaknesses of any policy, plan or decision of the government.
It called for him to make a written representation for himself within 21 days with reasoning and evidence for his release from the accusations, failing which he would be assumed as not wishing to defend himself, after which the matter will be decided by the Education Services Disciplinary Board Support Group (No. 1) based on evidence readily available to it.
"This is the system that we have — one that wishes to hear only praise even if it is only lies,” he said in a subsequent Facebook post.
The matter will be discussed today by the disciplinary committee.
Yesterday, national news agency Bernama reported caretaker Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s interest in the issue, where he expressed hopes for a win-win situation for all parties.
Ismail Sabri said that he had contacted Education director-general Datuk Khairuddin Ghazali for an explanation on the matter.
