Dept urged to act against headmasters who skip schools

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SANDAKAN: The Education Department was urged to take deterrent action against any headmaster who is frequently absent from school.

Deputy Education Minister Dr Puad Zarkashi said officials of the department should make unscheduled visits to the schools to monitor and assess for themselves the true situation on the ground.

“During my visit to Kampung Trusan and Trusan Baru, I was informed by the villagers that the schools’ headmasters seldom came to school,” he said when visiting several schools in the Batu Sapi parliamentary constituency on Thursday.

“While carrying out inspections on the two schools, the headmasters were not present and that made it difficult for us to determine the types of repair and other requirements of the schools,” Puad said.

During his visit, the deputy minister also received verbal complaints and information from the villagers that the headmasters rarely came to their schools and the bad examples shown by these school heads would undermine the teaching profession, he said.

According to Puad, the attitude of these headmasters had caused students to feel unmotivated and discouraged in their studies.

In addition, the schools’ activities may tend to be disrupted without the presence of the headmasters to plan or monitor them.

“Their absence has also affected the commitment of every teacher in the schools who are intent on giving their best to educate their students,” he said, adding that the ministry would not take the issue raised by the people for granted.