It said the teachers were only raising issues related to their welfare, job burden, as well as the syllabus and scheduling problems faced by their students.

“These issues are not political nor are they some form of misconduct, breach of trust, and sexual harassment or other incidents that tarnish the reputation of the teaching fraternity,” it said in a statement issued by its education committee today.

“The teachers raised these issues with the hope that the ministry will address them. Instead, they are being summoned by the ministry as if they have committed grave offences.”

PH urged the ministry to be more open-minded and provide special channels to allow the teachers to speak out on issues that concern them so that the ministry could take the necessary action.

“The committee also hopes that the teachers will share their opinions and complaints with the parliamentary select committee (PSC) on education, so that the committee can raise the issue with the ministry,” it said.

Early this year, teachers expressed unhappiness over the ministry’s new online learning manual (PdPR 2.0), with the country’s largest teachers’ union saying it was not consulted.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, teachers spoke out on social media as well as to media outlets about the struggles they faced in trying to provide online lessons.

They had complained about being stressed by hours-long online classes and the loss of their weekend off-days because they had to prepare educational material to be taught online.

The teachers also complained about poor attendance during online classes, which was attributed to the lack of access to electronic devices by poor students as well as their struggle to keep up with online classes.

Students, especially Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) candidates, had recently complained about the tight scheduling for the public examination which has been postponed to February next year.