KUALA TERENGGANU, MALAYSIA: The state government will introduce a '1Toilet' policy in a move to liberalise education, where teachers - and even principals - will soon have to share toilets with their students.

State Education, Higher Learning, Human Resource, Science and Technology Committee chairman Ahmad Razif Abd Rahman said the policy was mooted in line with the 1Malaysia concept, and teachers and students could have a feeling of "oneness".

"We want students to have a sense of belonging that we believe would inspire them to excel further in their education.

"When students share the toilets with the teacher, they (students) will believe that they are on par with academicians and this automatically invokes a sense of being important to an organisation, which, in this case, is the school," he said here yesterday.

"We are not compelling the school authorities to apply the policy. It is their prerogative," said Ahmad Razif.

"So far, we have one school in Hulu Terengganu that has implemented the policy a few days ago. It has received positive feedback from the school management although it is still premature for us to evaluate its efficiency," he said.

Ahmad Razif said that under the policy, teachers and students would also be encouraged to sit within a common space at school canteens during recess.

"This means that teachers and students will mingle freely during recess," he said.

Ahmad Razif said the policy had initially been proposed by Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said earlier this year but that it took some time for it to be properly drafted.

On another matter, Ahmad Razif said the state government would continue to send students to pursue medicine and dentistry in recognised universities in Indonesia.

"We are looking into the option of sending our students to universities in areas classified as non-earthquake prone areas in Indonesia," he said.

Ahmad Razif said the state government was also in the midst of discussions with officials from University Padjadjaran of Bandung on the possibility of sending Terengganu students for medical courses there.

He said other countries that the state government was planning to send their medical undergraduates next year were Poland and Russia.