Start teaching in prison schools

Tuesday June 3, 2008

Pioneer batch set to start teaching in prison schools


KUALA LUMPUR: The pioneer batch of 33 teachers in grade DG41 will begin teaching in five integrity schools on June 16.

According to Special Education Department officers, the teachers would be sent to the five integrity schools in Penjara Kajang; Penjara Sungai Petani; Penjara Marang; Henry Gurney, Telok Mas; and Henry Gurney, Keningau.

(An integrity school is a school set up within a prison for juvenile prisoners.)

Deputy Education Minister Dr Wee Ka Siong said qualified teachers, to be sent to teach in prisons by stages, would undergo an induction course to prepare them for the challenges ahead.


Dr Wee: ‘As of now we have five integrity schools’
“The ambience and environment will be entirely different from that of mainstream schools. The teachers will go in and out of the prison every day when it is a school day, according to our school calendar. They must be mentally prepared,” he told The Star in an interview.

Last November, Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein had announced that the ministry would work with the Prisons Department to enable juvenile prisoners to continue schooling behind bars and sit for public examinations.

Dr Wee described the collaboration with the prisons department as a “smart partnership.”

The response from those wanting to teach in prisons had been encouraging, he said, adding that the ministry had received 54 applications.

“We will look at how willing the teachers are to serve in prisons and their philosophy, as we don’t want them to think this is a way to ‘escape’ from mainstream schools, or that this will be an easy job,” he said.

The ministry, he added, was implementing the programme in phases.

“As of now we have five integrity schools, such as the Sekolah Integriti Penjara Kajang, Selangor, which will be considered as the central zone. There are also plans to expand the concept to Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.

The ministry would send 11 teachers to each school – eight solely to teach, plus three to be in charge of counselling, religious studies and rehabilitation, Dr Wee added.

This move was in line with the National Education Blueprint 2006-2010 and to support Unesco’s vision of providing education for all.

This year, a total of 243 juvenile prisoners will be sitting for public examinations at PMR, SPM, and STPM levels at integrity schools nationwide.