“Both these happenings involving teenagers who are the nation’s future leaders indicate all is not well with our education system,” said Senator Datuk John Ambrose.The students aged 17 died due to methanol poisoning after spending a week in intensive care. One of the Form 5 students died on Wednesday while the other died Thursday the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu. The first died from multiple organ failure due to methanol poisoning while the second of severe brain damage.
“By the time they find out it may be too late as usually schools only inform when the matter gets out of hand such as missing 20 schooling days in three months,” he said. Hence, he suggested that the Ministry create an app whereby parents can monitor the attendance on their handphone like practised by colleges and universities. Ambrose said some parents even transferred their children to boarding schools such as SMK Ranau to get them as far as possible from bad influence.