My heart sink when I read from newspaper that another stateless child is being denied his right to education. In Kuala Lumpur, 14 year old Pang Jun Hao was looking forward to commence his Form 2 when he was cruelly notified that he will not be taken in by the school.[1]
The Ministry of Education need to establish a set of guidelines to solve the perennial issue of stateless children being denied their right to education.
Last month, the plight of 8 year old Tan Yao Chun, who was unable to attend school due to a lack of citizenship, was highlighted by the media. After the intervention of Kedah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Bashah, he was able to enroll into a primary school. Nevertheless, he who should have begun schooling at the age of 7 has lost a year due to a shortcoming in the system.
Up till 2016, there are 290,437 stateless children below the age of 18 in Malaysia; a number even greater than the entire population of Perlis! How many of these children were able to enroll into national schools; and how many were denied their basic right to education because there were no politicians or members of the media highlighting their predicament?
In early 2015, I was alerted to two ‘stateless children’, Joey Wongs and Joanne Wong by their father Wong Sin Cheong. Joey was in a similar position with Tan Yao Chun whereby she was unable to be enrolled into a public primary school at the age of 8.
After I stepped in and appealed to the Ministry of Education, younger sister Joey was able to attend primary school. However, as elder sister Joanne prepares for life in secondary school, bureaucracy rears its head once more. She is now prevented from enrolling into secondary school due to intensified requirements, depriving her of the opportunity to learn and mingle with friends at school.
The headmaster of the secondary school explained that the process to enroll stateless children into public schools have been made more stringent in 2017. Parents have to bring their children to the state Department of Education themselves, along with their UPSR results, birth certificate, and a letter from the headmaster of the secondary school.
Joanne is a hardworking and exemplary student who scored 6 A’s in her UPSR examinations. However, due to unknown reasons leading to a sudden reinforcement in requirements, she has not been able to join her schoolmates in secondary school even though all required documents were submitted to State Education Department on January 26.
The government should simplify the process of enrolling stateless children into schools. As long as one of the parents is Malaysian, all stateless children should be allowed to enroll into Malaysian public schools. Children are the Masters of tomorrow. We should not stake their future on their parents’ failure to register their birth; but facilitate their learning process by providing them with the opportunity to attend school along their peers of the same age.
We should not forget the thousands of children who were unable to attend school because their predicament were neither highlighted by the media or brought to the attention of politicians. Only by establishing a set of guidelines can we finally resolve this issue once and for all.