Teo-Education.Com

KUALA LUMPUR: Ten secondary schools in Kuala Lumpur have been identified as ‘hot schools’ or those with students having discipline problems, criminal and social problem.

Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Muhammad Sabtu Osman said efforts were being undertaken to tackle the problem via crime prevention campaigns to ensure zero crime in schools.

“We can’t divulge the name of the schools as it is not good for their image and reputation,” he said after attending a drug and crime prevention campaign at SMK Taman Maluri here today. Sabtu said to address the problem, police officers with rank of ASP had been designated liaison officers to monitor the situation at the schools.

“The police officers will discuss with Parents-Teachers Associations and file monthly reports.

Read more @ http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/TenKL_s__8216_hotschools__8217_identified/Article

THE police will be identifying “hot” schools for the special attention of crime prevention teams. This news has been generally welcomed by teachers and parents, some of whom may have cause to despair that their charges will ever respond to their homegrown or school-based efforts to keep them in line and on the straight-and-narrow. Yet, it certainly won’t be good for any school to find itself on this ignominious roster, which is why Dr Ali Hassan Mohamed Murid, chairman of the National Parent-Teacher Association, has expressed the hope that the names of these schools will be known only to the police and kept from public knowledge. His point is taken, although logic suggests that it would be difficult if not impossible to hide the presence in any school of police personnel on surveillance or counselling duty.

To be fair, the police have worked towards a productive presence in schools for some time, through such programmes as regular visits to give talks to students and offer counselling and advice to wayward youths. These efforts have been credited with significant success in lowering the incidence of juvenile delinquency in these areas. The present proposal represents a stepping-up of this role on the part of the force, with a view to straightening out not just naughty kids but the seedbeds of delinquency and hooliganism that some schools seem to have become.

Still, if problem schools have to be identified before solutions can be brought to bear upon them, it’s not hard to imagine the anxieties of parents and students associated with a hot-listed school. It won’t be good for morale — at least initially — and may lead to apprehensions over the stigmatisation of these schools and their students. While acknowledging the imperative of developing more clued-in, responsible and even empowered students in our schools, recent initiatives such as the “informant boxes” suggested by Deputy Education Minister Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi for students to blow the whistle on misbehaving peers, along with such episodes as the recent Election Commission-supervised poll for head prefects in one primary school, and now this effort to bring policing to classrooms, may have certain downsides. Any measure to improve discipline and curb delinquency among school-going youth would be more than welcome, but care must be taken not to have these measures become divisive or deleterious to the young. Schools are more properly crucibles of education and guidance, after all, not crime and punishment.

Source:

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/articles/16school/Article/index_html

KUALA LUMPUR: Police will identify problematic or “hot” schools in the city in an effort to overcome indiscipline, crime and social problems among students.

Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Wira Muhammad Sabtu Osman said various activities, like exhibitions, talks, dialogues, and distribution of crime prevention pamphlets, would be carried out from time to time at the “hot schools” to remind students to stay away from unhealthy activities.

“This programme is part of an effort to bring students and the police closer to facilitate the process of disseminating information, to identify crime activities and problems that exist among students,” he told reporters after presenting appointment letters to 89 school prefects at Sekolah Kebangsaan Taman Tun Dr Ismail 1 here Monday.

The recipients included head prefect Khairul Azli Khairul Razi and assistant head prefect Alia Suraya Ahmad who were elected through an election conducted at the school last week.

The school created history when its head prefect was elected through an election which was handled and monitored by the Federal Territory Election Commission.

Muhammad Sabtu said priority would be given to secondary schools as most crime and social cases which involved students were from secondary schools.

However, he said, it would not mean that police would neglect the primary schools.

He said police would discuss complaints and problems on the matter with the schools concerned so that immediate action could be taken.

Bernama

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/1/18/nation/20100118165058&sec=nation