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PENAMPANG: Four Sabahan girls from a rural school in Kota Belud will go to court later this month over their former teacher for failing to show up for classes for almost a year.

Former SMK Taun Gusi students Siti Nafirah Siman, Rusiah Sabdarin, Nur Natasha Allisya Hamali and Calvina Angayung are suing their former teacher, Mohd Jainal Jamran, in two separate suits for not showing for their English subject class for seven months in 2015 and four months in 2017.

They also named former principal of the school, Suid Hanapi, the education department director-general, education ministry and Malaysian government in their suit for failing to guarantee their rights to their education.

Siti Nafirah, now 22 years old, had claimed the teacher had failed to turn up to class to teach from February to October in 2015 and also named the Kota Belud District Education officer, Sabah education department director, education director-general, education minister and Malaysian government as she claimed the defendants took no reasonable action despite being notified of the matter. She filed her suit in 2018.

Rusiah Sabdarin, Nur Natasha Allisya Hamali and Calvina Angayung, now 20, filed the lawsuit in 2020, claiming that Mohd Jainal had refused to enter their class from March to July in 2017 when they were 16.

In a press conference, the four told the media that the High Court had last year granted them an injunction for a restraining order against Mohd Jainal, the former principal Suid Hanapi and officers from the education ministry who had been harassing and pressuring them to drop the case.

The trio’s trial is scheduled to take place from September 5, some two years after they filed the case in court, while Siti Nafirah’s case will start on September 12, four years after she filed her case.

Siti Nafirah, now a housewife, said she was looking forward to her and her former schoolmates’ cases being heard in open court.

“I want all of Malaysia to hear from my side and the ministry’s side. I want the evidence submitted in open court. I want you to see what I saw. And then, let an independent judge question us all,” she said.

Calvina, now a university student studying politics and government, said that as a result of Mohd Jainal’s action, English was the only subject she failed in the SPM exams, which possibly cost her a student award.

Nur Natasha is working in a boutique while Rusiah is currently unemployed.

The four plaintiffs will be represented by lawyers Roxana Jamaludin, Shireen Sikayun, Jubili Anilik and Dominic J Omok.