MACHANG: THE Education Ministry will be more proactive in helping teachers sued by parents over incidents at schools, said minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid.

He said as civil servants, teachers would be given legal assistance by the government if the incident occurred during their working hours.

“They will be defended by the Attorney-General’s Chambers if something happens when they are working. However, they must report incidents quickly.

“There are 430,000 teachers in the country, so it is a priority that all parties be alerted, from the school principal, to the district Education Office, to the education director,” he said after launching the state-level Teachers with the Community programme at SK Machang 2 here yesterday.

Mahdzir said the ministry wanted everything to come under its radar so that teachers did not face lawsuits alone. He said the ministry would assist teachers to ensure the cases were settled speedily.

He said if there were any misunderstanding at schools, they could usually be resolved through discussions between those involved or intervention by the authorities, including the principal or Education Office.

“If it is not settled and the case is brought to court, we will look at where the case will lead to.

However, it is our hope that teachers are not sued.” On another issue, Mahdzir said the ministry had, this year, approved about 9,000 applications by teachers to return to their home states or be reunited with their spouses.

He said about 90 per cent involved couples who were teaching in different states and those who had worked a long time away from their home states and had wanted to return.

“We have two transfer periods annually, from January to June and June to December. About 4,500 have been transferred in March and June, and the same number is expected in January.

“Most are teachers from Kelantan and Kedah. The number of applications were in the tens of thousands, but there is no place to put them in their home states.”-nst