PETALING JAYA: The Education Ministry should ensure that every child is not deprived of the right to education, says MCA Youth secretary-general Saw Yee Fung.
Citing the case of a 10-year-old girl who is not allowed to continue schooling next year as she did not possess a Malaysian citizenship, Saw said the government should step in and let the pupil resumes her studies.
She said the ministry should explain the "abrupt" implementation of a policy of disallowing stateless children from attending government schools.
Last week, a news portal reported that the girl, identified only as Shivaani, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and sought his help to enable her to resume Year Four studies next year.
She had studied at a national school in Negri Sembilan from Year One to Year Three.
However, she had apparently been informed by the school that she could no longer continue her studies next year as she did not possess a Malaysian citizenship.
In a statement today (Dec 30), Saw said: "Policies should not be changed at a whim especially when it involves depriving an innocent child from attending school.
“No child should be denied access to education. Why punish a minor for the mistakes of her parents who had failed to register their marriage or her birth?"
Saw said the government should create greater awareness on the importance of registering marriages and the birth of a child.
She said there are 300,000 stateless children in Malaysia and 99% of them were born and raised in the country.
Without citizenship, she said the children would be denied of their right to education, medical care and may face other hardship.
"The government or the Education Ministry needs to amend legislations and policies to ensure all underaged individuals have equal opportunity to obtain citizenship, regardless of the marital status of their Malaysian parents.
“The government should also reduce waiting time and increase efficiency in processing citizenship applications for children," she said.
