Jenifer (seated, middle) and the participants of the course at the closing ceremony.
PUTATAN: Sabahans are urged to understand that the undocumented people in Sabah also comprised of the local indigenous people such as the Kadazandusuns, the Muruts and many others who reside in remote areas in the state.
Assistant Education and Innovation Minister Jenifer Lasimbang said when closing the Train-the-trainers (TOT) Intervention and Counseling course for counseling teachers yesterday that there were many people in Sabah who did not have documents and she found this out while working for UNICEF’s Children Fund for three years.
She said among the remote places where the undocumented children of Sabah resided were in Pensiangan.
“There are many cases in Sabah,” she said.
The problems these children face include not being able to register for secondary schools.
This is because one needs to have an identification card and birth certificate to get into Form One and beyond, she said.
“One must take note that these students will undergo strict filtration before they can enter secondary schools. Without the necessary documents, they will not be able to get in.
“As a result, these children are forced to drop out,” she said.
“Similarly, there are also many Sabahan children with birth certificates that are stamped: ‘late birth registration’,” she said.
She noted that children with such birth certificates will also face problems in getting their identification card and hence, face difficulties in registering for secondary schools.
She added that the parents would have to go through a tedious legal process to get the birth certificate endorsed.
“They need to get it endorsed first before their child or children can get their identification card,” she said.
Jenifer also mentioned that this was a big problem in rural and remote areas in Sabah that are seldom or never visited by the National Registration Department’s personnel for registration purposes.
“To top off the documentation problem, these children of Sabah, residing at the rural and remote areas of the state are also faced with transportation and economic difficulties. That results in high dropout rates amongst these rural children,” she said.
With regard to the counseling teachers, Jenifer noted the challenges they have to endure in the course of their duties.
“You have to deal with students from various backgrounds who may be faced with social and economic challenges themselves,” she said.
She added that as counseling teachers, they have to be willing to lend a friendly ear since students who are facing challenges may only want someone to listen to them and not really to resolve their problems.
Aside from that, she said they would also have to deal with issues that results in students dropping out, students’ absenteeism and so on.
She urged for such students to be assisted and for the teachers to ensure that none of their students are left behind.