Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah
SIBU: The Sarawak State Education Department (JPNS) has approved 250 applications of stateless children to enter government schools in the current school session this year.
State Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah said they were children between locals and foreigners who do not have personal identification documents.
According to her, such incidents occurred when the couples comprising local men and foreign wives do not have valid marriage certificates or their marriage were not registered in the country apart from not registering the births of their children.
“Children with uncertain nationality can study in government schools but they need to pay RM120 as annual fees for primary school and RM240 for secondary schools,” she said after visiting Destiny For Children Centre in Sibu yesterday.
She said 10 more applications were rejected as the children were born to foreigners who entered the state using social pass.
In the visit, she also replied to questions from parents whose children faced difficulties in entering school due to their uncertain nationality.
The problems arose from the absence of official documents such as marriage and birth certificates especially involving local men marrying foreign women.
Fatimah said such couples should attend to their marriage and children’s birth certificates to avoid getting into schooling problems later.
She said when they have the valid documents, they could apply for their children’s citizenship under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution.
However she clarified that application for citizenship is not approved by her ministry or Sarawak National Registration Department (JPN) but by the Home Minister. — Bernama