Teachers, Counsellors Urged To Ensure Students Feel Safe To Speak Up

GEORGE TOWN, Sept 30 (Bernama) -- Schools, particularly educators and guidance and counselling teachers, have been urged to play an active role in fostering an environment where students feel safe to speak up.

Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Lim Hui Ying said students’ confidence that their concerns would be treated with empathy and taken seriously was crucial to creating a safe and trusted school environment.

“When students are confident that their voices will be heard and their concerns addressed appropriately, schools will become safer, more trusted and more caring spaces,” she said when launching the Zero Tolerance for Violence: Respect the Boundaries programme at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Agama (Perempuan) Al Mashoor here today.

Lim said the school years were a period of new challenges and experiences, including academic pressure, friendships, family issues and challenges arising from social media.

She hoped that awareness of personal boundaries and protection would not end with the programme, but would instead be carried into the classroom, home and wider community.

She said the ministry provided various avenues for assistance, including Talian Kasih 15999, which operates 24 hours a day, WhatsApp at 019-261 5999, as well as access to the Anti-Sexual Harassment Tribunal through the e-TAGS system.

Meanwhile, Lim, who is also Tanjong MP, said RM95,000 had been allocated to install 75 closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras at three secondary schools in the constituency.

She said two schools in the constituency already had CCTV systems that complied with Ministry of Education guidelines.

“So now I have made sure that all five secondary schools are fully equipped with functioning CCTV systems,” she said.

-- BERNAMA