Friday October 23, 2009
Ministry to probe ‘fat’ remarks
PUTRAJAYA: Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has directed an investigation on a senior official at the Rajang Teachers Training College who allegedly told a female trainee that she was too fat to be a teacher.
He said he has directed Education director-general Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom to investigate the case, stressing that the ministry has never practised discrimination in selecting trainee teachers, what more based on one’s physical appearance.
“There is no such policy nor do we discriminate people based on their physical appearance. The director-general will get to the bottom of this,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Muhyiddin was responding to a newspaper report on Wednesday on claims by trainee teacher Joanna Gil-bert Asson that she was discriminated against when a senior official told her that she was too fat to be a teacher.
He said Joanna was successful in the selection process and was eligible as a new trainee for a post-graduate teacher training course.
“I hope that she will review her decision to withdraw from the course,” he said.
The 29-year-old business administration graduate from Universiti Tenaga Nasional claimed the official had uttered the words when she reported to the college on June 22.
Joanna claimed that the official told her: “You’re fat. You can’t possibly be a teacher. You look un-healthy, come back next year after you’ve slimmed down.”
In frustration, Joanna wrote to the Education Ministry to withdraw from the course and for a refund of the RM300 registration fee.
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