Whose fault is it when a student fails your subject?

This post was inspired by this article English teacher seldom entered class and no replacement, says former student.

Four students have banded together to take legal action against the teacher, the School, the School's Principal, the Ministry of Education and the Government of Malaysia for being continuously absent and not teaching them English, resulting in their weak or failed results in that subject.

The Plaintiffs, now 21 and having different callings in life, apparently have had to apply for an injunction to stop the harassment by the Defendants in the course of days preceding this trial.

There are a few angles/ aspects/ questions to this story, in my opinion:

1- The teacher who was alleged to not have taught for a good part of a year, and no replacement was provided = the duty of care to teach & carry out one's task based on the employment requirement;

2- The principal and the school who/ which allowed this to happen right under their noses. Based on what's reported in the news, the students have informed their class teacher (about the English teacher's frequent absence) to no avail;

3- The students who were allegedly disadvantaged in their major examination (SPM) due to their teacher's frequent absence- they did not have sufficient preparation and direction in the English subject, and failed in their SPM English;

4- No corrective action was taken by the teacher, class teacher, principal, the school, the Ministry of Education/ the Government to alleviate this shortcoming;

5- This is a David v Goliath story. Despite the challenge (uphill battle is probably more apt), the Plaintiffs have gone on record to state that the justice of the matter must prevail.

Who was the teacher, and what did assignments did he have to do.. to have missed so many classes?

What is the standard of teaching expected? I remembered my brother who was in class with a Maths teacher who taught the bare minimum and asked everyone to join his paid tuition classes to learn more (why could he not have taught these things in class???). Sorry for digressing, my point connects to how much effort is the teacher and students expected to give? What/ Where is this "balance" where the teacher had done all that he could, and the rest would depend on the students' efforts?

The media has reported from the perspective of the student claimants. As a lecturer/ teacher I also understand how the sanctity of the teaching profession must be protected. Nevertheless, the missed classes must be explained. Why everyone turned a blind eye to the students' needs, this has to be unraveled. Were the students truant? We don't know, but I hope they weren't, for their sakes.

I am not the Public Prosecutor but if I were, I probably would suggest the Malaysian government provides an intensive English class to the girls and offer them a free seat for the next SPM English. But then, that's just me.