KEMENTERIAN PENDIDIKAN MALAYSIA

On the court record

The federal Ministry of Education, litigating teacher-discipline and condonation questions, vicarious liability for harm on school premises, and school-governance disputes as employer and guardian of public schools.

Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia (the Ministry of Education) is the federal ministry responsible for schools, and it appears in the corpus as a defendant or respondent in disputes spanning the governance of schools, the discipline of teachers as public officers, and the state's potential liability for what happens on school premises.

Public-officer discipline is a recurring theme, and it produced some pointed judicial comment on delay. In one administrative-law matter a teacher accused of prolonged absenteeism in 2015 to 2016 faced no disciplinary action for seven years — during which the teacher was transferred, promoted and given a service award — before a sudden show-cause letter in 2023, the court asking whether the prolonged inaction amounted to condonation. In a Malay-language judicial review under Order 53, the question was whether a delay in a promotion or a defect in the promotion procedure meant the authority had failed to observe "procedural fairness", and whether an applicant had to repay emoluments overpaid.

The Ministry has also been sued over harm on school premises and over school governance. One matter concerned allegations of vicarious liability for sexual harassment and assault at a school — "bertanggungjawab secara vikarius" (vicariously liable) — engaging the duty owed and whether that duty had been breached. Another involved the striking out of an originating summons and statement of claim under Order 18 rule 19 concerning the membership and chairmanship of a school board of governors, later converted from an originating summons to a writ. Procedural questions recurred, including whether judicial review had been commenced by the correct mode and when the Order 53 procedure is mandatory. The through-line is the state's dual role as employer of teachers and as the body ultimately answerable for the safe and lawful running of public schools. The recurring tension is between the ministry's authority over teachers and schools and the procedural fairness and duty of care that the courts require it to observe.