KOTA KINABALU: The teacher who was absent from school in Kota Belud shed tears of remorse after the civil suit filed against him in 2018 went viral.
Another teacher of SMK Taun Gusi Kota Belud disclosed this when testifying before High Court Judge Datuk Ismail Brahim in the trial of a suit brought by the school's former student, Siti Nafirah Siman, against her former English teacher Mohd Jainal Jamran.
Under examination-in-chief by counsel Shireen Sikayun, the subpoenaed witness said that Jainal met her when she was the school's student affairs assistant administrator.
"Cikgu Jainal cried when she met me. As far as I remember, he said he was sorry for what happened. He regretted his actions of being absent and abandoning his students. He should not have done so as a teacher," she said.
To another question, the 12th witness said that after the suit went viral, she had attended a meeting chaired by the then State Education Department director Datuk Maimunah Suhaibul in Kota Kinabalu.
The witness recalled that Maimunah had said that from looking at Jainal's teaching log, the latter could tell that the records had just been made up because the paper patch was still new and there was incomplete information.
"Datuk Maimunah then said 'If the beginning is already looking like this, then we are already defeated'," added the witness when recapping what transpired in the meeting.
The witness said that Jainal was her colleague and he is a cheerful and strict person but sometimes has a hard time controlling his anger.
The witness said she knew about Jainal's failure to enter class to teach in 2015. However, she was unsure whether the matter was an open secret in the school.
"At my school, apart from myself, there are other teachers who also know about this," she said.
In the suit filed on Oct 30, 2018, Siti Nafirah had named her ex-English teacher Jainal as the first defendant.
The other defendants are Suid Hanapi (then principal of SMK Taun Gusi), the Kota Belud district education officer, Sabah education director, education director-general, education minister and the government.
Federal Counsel Mohd Fazriel Fardiansyah Abdul Kadir acted for the defendants.
The trial was adjourned until Nov 30.
