HULU TERENGGANU: Stateless children can now attend public school, provided their applications to become Malaysian citizens have been submitted for processing.
Giving this assurance, Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid said that this is to ensure they do not miss out on the chance to be educated, just as with all other Malaysian children.
“They should not be denied an education owing to a lack of proper documents, like a birth certificate.
“Let them study while their cases are being reviewed and their documents processed,” he said, adding that the National Registration Department (NRD) could issue special certificates to allow affected children to attend school.
Mahdzir added that his ministry will take after the example set by Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah, who had intervened in isolated cases of children prevented from enrolling in public schools owing to their lack of appropriate documents.
Ahmad Bashah said it is unfair for stateless children to be denied access to education, as it is not their fault that their parents failed to register their birth.
Mahdzir, himself a former Kedah Menteri Besar, said this after a gotong-royong campaign at SK Bukit Tadok in Hulu Terengganu. He was on hand to encourage parent-teacher associations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to assist in cleaning-up operations at flood-affected schools.
Mahdzir echoed Ahmad Bashah who said that any seven-year-old child could study in a government or government-aided school as long as one parent is a Malaysian citizen.
The Education minister’s decision came after the New Straits Times (NST) highlighted the plight of seven-year-old Tan Yao Chun from Changlun, Kedah, who was unable to attend school, as his Malaysian father did not register his birth with the Malaysian embassy in Thailand.
It was reported that the boy was born on Aug 29, 2009, at the Hatyai City Hospital to a Myanmar mother.
The NST had, nearly 25 years ago, similarly highlighted the case of a Malaysian lumberjack, working near the Sarawak-Kalimantan border, whose three children were denied public schooling in Subang Jaya, simply because his wife was an Indonesian from Pontianak.
This was despite the fact that his children, who had improper documents, were able to earlier attend public primary school in Sarawak, before the family moved to Selangor upon the father’s retirement.
After the case was highlighted for months by the NST, the Selangor education department finally relented and gave permission for the children to attend public schools.
On another note, Mahdzir advised state education departments to file in damage assessment reports as soon as possible to enable repair work and replacement of facilities, such as furniture and other equipment, damaged by floods, to be expedited.
“The Education Ministry will provide a fast-track allocation for this purpose so that studies will not be disrupted in schools affected by the floods,” he said.
A total of 72 schools in Terengganu, Kelantan and Sabah were reportedly affected by the recent monsoon floods.