Tue, Dec 1st 2009 - KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Mohamad Aziz (BN-Sri Gading), who has made sexist remarks in the past, had the House in stitches when he claimed that the Education Ministry was discriminating against men.

”I am upset, I am disappointed. The Education Ministry practices discrimination against men,” he said in his supplementary question to Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong.

Dr Wee had earlier told the Dewan Rakyat that the ratio of male teachers to female teachers was one-to-two.

There were 121,772 male teachers and 264,259 female teachers in primary and secondary schools nationwide, said Dr Wee.

Some MPs were taken aback when Mohamad made the allegation of gender discrimination, but with a mischievious smile, the latter quickly diffused the situation by saying: “Women are important too.”

”Six out of ten of the people in my constituency who want to be teachers are male. So how can it be that men are not interested in teaching?

”Female teachers cause a problem regarding transfers, because they want to follow their husbands. It is rare that male teachers ask for transfers because they want to follow their wives,” he said.

Dr Wee denied Mohamad’s allegation, saying the ministry did not practice gender discrimination but hired teachers based on their qualifications and the results of their aptitude test.