The Sarawak Education Department will soon decide on how best to deal with a local Muslim teacher who has since admitted caning a 10-year-old non-Muslim boy, Basil Beginda, on Oct 15 for bringing non-halal food to school for his recess break.

The form of action to be taken will depend on recommendations to be made by a disciplinary committee set up by the department.

The committee is currently going through a report on a meeting of various parties held on Tuesday this week at the St Thomas Primary School in Kuching where the errant teacher, Iskander Fadeli from Simunjan, is the senior assistant.

The mission school has reportedly left the matter in the hands of the department since the disciplinary committee also includes its representatives, besides those from the department and its divisional office.

“It’s up to the committee to decide i.e. whether a warning, or whatever, as long as it’s fair and appropriate,” said Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department Fatimah Abdullah.

She made the remarks yesterday at an education seminar entitled ‘Sedidik Got Talent (SEFTA) 2010', at the civic centre in Kuching.

She stressed that the meeting itself had decided that no action should be taken against the errant senior assistant who had apologised - during the Nov 9 meeting - for the caning action.

He has also not been suspended, so far, pending the disciplinary action to be taken against him.

Fatimah could not explain why the school could not take action against the senior assistant for caning a student without being duly authorised to do so.

Only four of the teachers at St Thomas, including school principal Alice Chung, are authorised to cane students, the senior assistant not being one of them, according to Angela Jabing Beginda, the mother of the boy in the caning incident.

‘Learning from our mistakes’

Instead, Fatimah stressed that the caning incident was “a good lesson” for the school, the senior assistant and the parents of the boy concerned.

“It’s also a learning process. We must learn from our mistakes,” said Fatimah. “The school and the senior assistant have learnt the best way to tackle similar cases if they happen again in the future.”

Elsewhere, Fatimah took issue with a February circular by the department banning the sale of non-halal food at school canteens in the state. She deems it “inappropriate” and not because the Muslims are in a definite minority in Sarawak.

“We live in a multiracial country,” said Fatimah. “Some schools are 100 percent non-Muslim, some are mixed while others are 100 percent Muslim.”

It’s more important, she continued, that parents educate their children - on sensitivities - although the Education Ministry “has given leeway to schools to have their own rules and regulations”. She urged that schools make their regulations clear and explain nicely to the students and parents before misunderstandings arise.

She has a particular message for non-Muslim parents.

“If your children bring non-halal food to school, they should have it alone and not pass them to Muslim friends,” she advised, without relating it to the caning incident.

There has been no suggestion so far that Basil offered his non-halal food - fried rice with pork sausages - to any Muslim student at the school.

NONE According to Jabing ( left in photo ), it was the senior assistant’s son who confirmed for his father that Basil had brought non-halal food to school on that fateful day.

This was after a Muslim boy, an Alif, complained to the senior assistant about Basil bringing non-halal food to school. The boy had apparently gone over to the corner of the school hall where Basil was finishing his food to check on what he was eating.

“My son would never share his food with anyone,” stressed Jabing this afternoon. “He’s very stingy about that.”

Jabing also clarified that she is giving the committee another week to take appropriate action against the senior assistant. Meanwhile, she can’t understand why the school itself cannot take action against Iskander for caning her son.

“According to the school’s own regulations, only four teachers can cane students and Iskander is not one of them,” pointed out Jabing. “So, what is the school going to do about this infringement of their own regulations?”

She also stressed that the Nov 9 meeting at the school did not resolve that no action should be taken against Iskander.

“What the meeting decided was that the school board did not have the authority to take any form of disciplinary action against the senior assistant,” said Jabing. “So, it was decided to leave the matter in the hands of the disciplinary committee.”

Jabing has expressed willingness last Tuesday, albeit grudgingly, to accept a belated apology from the senior assistant for the caning incident. The senior assistant did not refer to the caning incident when he apologised, according to Jabing.

Two conditions set

However, she has set two conditions if she is to accept the apology.

She wants senior assistant Iskander to be removed from the school for caning her son. Jabing made the demand on the grounds that her son “lives in fear of the senior assistant”, had been traumatised by the incident and that the senior assistant had acted arbitrarily.

She also wants the department to clarify the February circular on halal food. The department had promised to issue an immediate clarification on the circular which states that no non-halal food can be sold at school canteens, according to Jabing.

“They should state their stand on the sale of beef and other meat as well, besides pork, since these are not allowed by certain faiths and vegans.”

Jabing’s first request, however, is under consideration by the department pending disciplinary action against Iskander.

Jabing also told the local press yesterday that she doesn’t want the caning incident to veer off in other directions involving questions over the religious status of her husband, Beginda Minda from Kapit.

She stressed that her husband, an Iban like her, remains a pagan while she and her children are Christians of the Anglican Church.

She is from Engkili but resident in Kuching where she works as executive secretary to the Sarawak chapter of PKR.