Deputy Education Minister Chong Sin Woon said the workshop will also discuss ways to review the role of school liaison officers (PPS) to help deal with disciplinary problems in school.

“We will see if we can have a memorandum of understanding after the workshop,” he told reporters after chairing a meeting of the Education Ministry’s Consensus Council and the police to strengthen the role of PPS at the ministry here today.

Chong said the appointment of the PPS was based on cooperation that existed between the Ministry of Education and the police in which each primary and secondary school will have a police officer to monitor the surrounding.

He said the Ministry of Education wants more PPS to give students a message that not only disciplinary teachers will control them but also the police.

Chong said that although the PPS system already existed, there was no guideline to address drug problems in schools.

Besides drug problems, today’s meeting also discussed the issue of bullying in which a standard operating procedure was required, especially when bullying takes place outside the school, he said.

“Schools need to know the students who engaged in criminal cases outside the school so that intervention, particularly in terms of counselling can be carried out by the school,” he said, stressing the importance of intervention so that students are not expelled from school and eventually become a problem to society.

Today’s meeting also discussed the case of cyber bullying on WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube and there were suggestions that a module which can help students understand the existing laws, particularly in terms of the Communications and Multimedia Act, is produced, he said.

Chong said the students need to know that those convicted of offences under the Act can be punished and fined.

-BERNAMA