We take responsibility for Thaqif’s death, says school
Johor religious department says it has investigated the school and found it has not committed any offence.
“We will face it and not run away,” a spokesman from Madrasah Tahfiz Al-Jauhar told theSundaily.
The 11-year-old pupil died at 2.06pm yesterday, a week after he was admitted to Hospital Sultan Ismail for injuries to his legs, allegedly inflicted during a beating.
He had previously undergone surgery to amputate both his legs in an attempt to stop infection from spreading.
He was scheduled fur further surgery to amputate his right arm as well but died just hours later yesterday.
Speaking to theSundaily, the spokesman said the school had completed its internal report and submitted it to the police.
He added that no student had left the school following the incident. Neither the board of directors nor the management staff had offered to resign as everything was under police investigation.
According to the report, however, he declined to comment on why the school had hired an ex-convict as its assistant warden, or whether the school caned its students.
He also claimed that religious schools only needed to register under the state’s Islamic Education Department, the daily said.
The case has sparked off widespread condemnation of corporal punishment in schools, with the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) today calling for an end to caning as a form of punishment.
In a statement today, the commission added that caning was a violation of child rights under the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC).
Star Online quoted Johor religious executive committee chairman Abd Mutalip Abd Rahim as saying the Johor Islamic Religious Department (JAIJ) had completed its investigation of the school and found it had not committed any offence.
Asked how the school had hired a former convict as an assistant warden, he said it was up to the school to hire anyone.
He said following Thaqif’s death, JAIJ would come up with new guidelines for these schools to hire staff, especially those in charge of the students’ welfare.
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He said there were 86 privately-run registered religious schools in Johor.