KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Education (MOE) enforces the Ikhtisas Bil 1/2009 circular which provides some flexibility for children of Malaysian citizens who are without identification documents to receive formal education at the primary level.
Deputy Education Minister Datuk Mary Yap Kain Ching said the opportunities and rights of children to education have always been the concern of the ministry, including children who did not possess proper documents in Sabah.
Yap said this in response to Senator Datuk Chin Su Phin’s question on whether the government planned to relax the conditions for children with identification card issues in Sabah in order for them to pursue their education in public schools until tertiary level during the question-and-answer session in the Dewan Negara sitting here.
Apart from the Education Act 1996, Yap said the MOE adopted the Ikhtisas Bil 1/2009 circular which outlined the acceptance of Malaysian citizens’ children who do not possess identification documents into government schools and government-assisted schools on the conditions that one of the parents is a Malaysian citizen, or a verification letter from the village head to confirm the child is born to Malaysian citizens.
Yap said the enforcement of the Ikhtisas Bil 1/2009 circular provides some leniency for children of Malaysian citizens, who are without identification documents, to receive formal education at the primary level, in line with the compulsory education policy of Malaysia.
Having said that, Yap said the MOE maintained the policy that only Malaysian citizens were eligible to apply for public higher learning institutions (IPTA) in the case of Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) school leavers or equivalent.
As for application into IPTA for school leavers with Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) or equivalent, the applicants must be Malaysian citizens or permanent residents with identification cards or MyKad, she said.
In his supplementary question, Chin said that stateless children was a prevailing issue that has a serious impact on Sabah, as stateless children did not have the opportunity to receive good education. Even if they managed to enter the national education system, these children have to register themselves as foreigners and pay the levy, he said.
Hence, Chin wanted to know if the MOE intended to review the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025 to address this problem in the long term as well as the government’s plan to resolve this issue as we move towards becoming a developed nation in 2020.
To that, Yap replied that the MOE had launched two education blueprints, namely, the Malaysia Education Blueprint in 2013 and the National Education Blueprint for Higher Education in April.
She said the MOE would review the blueprints during implementation, and assured that Sabah would not be neglected in the process.