Former Teacher Who Pocketed $40K from Secondary School Jailed for 18 Months

As students, we tend to see teachers as these… authoritative figures who can’t possibly do any wrong.

After all, if they’re educating us, they should be pretty darn perfect right?

Well, not quite.

Now do not be mistaken; there is a plethora of good teachers out there, who endeavour tirelessly to tolerate our growing minds. But the fact remains that teachers are humans as well.

Like everyone else, they are just as susceptible to an error in judgement, though in their case it seems a great deal worse because of the prior observation.

Former Teacher Who Pocketed $40K from Secondary School Jailed for 18 Months

According to The Straits Times,  Maslinda Zainal, 46, has been given a prison term of 18 months for misappropriation of more than $40,000 of students’ monies.

The sentence was handed out on Friday (5 March 2021) and came after a previous trial on 11 January – during which Maslinda was convicted of two counts of criminal trust.

She is reportedly set to launch an appeal.

According to the news report, Maslinda had joined Woodgrove Secondary School in 2002 and became a head of department (HOD) just four years later.

In charge of the English and literature department, Maslinda “oversaw the collection of student monies by the teachers in the English department for resource packages and liaised with the bookstore that printed the resource packages”.

She ultimately, however, betrayed her position of trust when she noticed that excess had been collected.

“In her capacity as HOD, she oversaw the collection of student monies by the teachers in the English department for resource packages and liaised with the bookstore that printed the resource packages,” Deputy Public Prosecutors David Koh and Stephanie Chew stated.

“The accused was the only one who knew that an excess of monies had been collected from the students – and that what the bookstore was charging was far less than the amounts collected from the students.”

Entrusted with almost $35,000 in 2016 and more than $36,000 in 2017, Maslinda ended up paying the bookshop owner around $13,000 in 2016 and $17,000 in 2017,

She then misappropriated the remaining sum.

The offences were only discovered after Madam Jacqueline Chan, a subject head noticed discrepancies between the amounts collected and the sums paid in the bookshop’s invoice.

The issue was raised to a vice-principal, which was then escalated to the principal. After launching an investigation, the principal called the police on 17 April 2017.

Maslinda was subsequently arrested on the same day.

For each charge of criminal breach of trust, perpetrators could face up to 10 years’ jail and a fine.

High Salary

According to a Mothership report back in 2018, Maslinda earned a gross monthly salary of S$8,800 back when she was still with Woodgrove Secondary School.

It was, by no means, a small amount. Which leads us to wonder just why a high-ranking teacher, with such an enviable salary, would willingly throw it all away for an amount that could be made up with a few months’ pay.

Well, teachers are only human after all.

Makes you appreciate the good teachers you currently have all the more.

Feature Image: MaddyZ / Shutterstock.com