YOU'RE TOO FAT TO BE A TEACHER, WOMAN TOLD

KUCHING: When Joanna Gilbert Asson was accepted for a postgraduate course at the Teachers Training College Rajang, she was beside herself with joy. But that joy was scuppered thanks to an insensitive senior official at the college.

Joanna, 29, claimed she was discriminated against when the man told her that she was too fat to become a teacher. She wants the Education Ministry to do something about it. Joanna claimed the man told her: "You're fat. You can't possibly be a teacher. You look unhealthy, come back next year after you've slimmed down." A business administration graduate from Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Joanna sat for an examination and was interviewed by a panel from the college on May 19.

After being told that she was successful, she reported to the college on June 22, accompanied by her parents.She paid the RM300 registration fee, collected additional forms, including those for a medical test and waited for her turn. It was then that the senior official called her into his office and told her she was fat."How can he judge me by my appearance alone? I have not undergone a government medical test but he was confident that I am sick." Joanna said she went for a medical test at a private hospital before registering, but the college rejected the result because it was not from a government clinic. In frustration, Joanna wrote to the ministry to withdraw from the course and for a refund of the registration fee. "During the interview, nothing was said about my weight. They can see from the form that I am 110kg." State Education director Dr Julaihi Bujang said the college official should not have acted that way but declined to comment further.The Education Ministry's Teacher Education Division in Putrajaya could not be contacted for comment.