The SK Ibrahim issue whereby a teacher was alleged to have told non Muslim students to drink tap water or urine in the toilet during the fasting month is certainly not a small matter.
Kedah Education, Transport and Housing Executive Committee chairman Tajul Urus Mat Zain had explained that the teacher‘s comments about drinking urine was only a joke.
However, his explanation does not mean that the issue is resolved and over until a full probe has been conducted.
One thing which is clear at this stage is that there was no rebuttal to the allegation that the non Muslim students were told to drink tap water in the toilets during the fasting month.
How could a teacher advise any student to drink tap water? And why could not the non Muslim students be allowed to drink and eat in the canteen during the fasting month?
Surely during the fasting month, Muslim students who fast will not go to the canteen, so why the unfair, unacceptable and ridiculous directive that the non Muslim students should drink in the toilet?
A few days ago, Deputy Education Minister I Datuk Mary Yap, in response to the SK Ibrahim issue said that non-Muslim students should avoid eating and drinking in front of Muslim schoolmates during the fasting month.
This is the most ridiculous response from her as the issue at hand involves a real incident whereby the non Muslim students were told to drink tap water in the toilets during the fasting month.
Was she saying that it was not wrong for the teacher to have given the “drink tap water in the toilet”directive?
While Mary Yap deserves the heavy criticisms from the netizens, the deafening silence from the number one boss in the Education Ministry is most baffling and disappointing.
Is the issue so controversial or trivial that the Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has chosen to keep silent?
Or is it because keeping silence is politically correct for him?
As the Education Minister, he ought to publicly let school authorities and Malaysians know where the Ministry stands on this issue. And the only stand that he can and musttake is very clear, that is, non Muslim students must be allowed to eat and drink in the school canteens during the fast month.
He should also make it clear that teachers who are misfits and bring shame to the educational system will be disciplined and should in fact just leave the teaching profession.