The Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) is working on measures and guidelines aimed at preventing sexual misconduct and offences in religious schools across the state.
Jais director Datuk Mohd Shahzihan Ahmad said discussions were underway with the School Registration Committee, including a proposal to introduce stricter screening procedures for teachers.
He said one possibility was to require all teachers to obtain police clearance as part of a security screening process, with Jais expected to discuss the implementation with the police.
“There is a possibility that we will require all teachers to obtain a police clearance. There needs to be security screening, and we will discuss with the police how to implement the screening,” he said.
Mohd Shahzihan was speaking to reporters after the closing ceremony of the state preparatory course for students heading overseas, particularly to the Middle East, here on Saturday (Aug 22).
He added that Jais was also reviewing guidelines governing interactions between teachers and students, with stricter measures on segregation being considered to reduce opportunities for misconduct.
Under the proposed guidelines, teachers, administrators and students would be discouraged from engaging in inappropriate interactions, including providing special treatment or holding meetings and memorisation sessions at unusual hours or without proper supervision.
The move follows an earlier report that the state government had referred an investigation into an alleged sexual assault involving a teacher and a student at a religious school to the police.
