KUALA LUMPUR: The number of students registered as persons with disabilities (OKU) in Malaysia has reached almost 290,000 this year, says Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri.
Women, Family and Community Development Minister said at least 289,161 students with learning disabilities have registered from January to October 2024 so far which was a sizable increase over the previous 262,283 students that were registered in 2023.
She said this sizable increase in registrations was an encouraging sign of more parental awareness towards signs of their children’s disabilities.
“This increased awareness will be key to eliminating the stigma associated with children with disabilities but also further educating the people on their struggles.
“To ensure that this step has a positive impact, the government needs to develop a strong framework or guidelines to protect, support, and empower this group,” she said in a speech during the national-level OKU Day 2024 on Tuesday (Dec 3).
Despite this increase, Nancy acknowledged that the number of registered OKU people in the country was still relatively low and did not reflect the true number of OKUs currently in the country.
She said that this was due to most OKUs or their families not knowing how to register as an OKU or recognise their loved ones' disabilities due to being able to sustain themselves.
“Many OKUs either have no idea how to register as an OKU or even that they can do so because some of them are able to live relatively normal lives despite their disabilities.
“However, increasing the number of registered OKUs is important because the data will be used for the government's long-term development planning for the disability community.
"Additionally, children who are not registered as persons with disabilities will miss out on various benefits provided by the government for them,” she said in a press conference after the event.
She added that this was especially bad for OKU children as a lack of early intervention could result in a life of suffering for them in the long run as well as a potential loss for the country.
“As we have seen so many times before, many of these OKU children have the potential to become geniuses that will become the pride of our country whether it’d be as a lawyer, graduate in sciences or film producer,” she said.
She also revealed that there were now 740,844 registered OKU in Malaysia as of Oct 31 this year, comprising of 486,507 men and 254,337 women.
With this, Nancy announced that the Welfare Department (JKM) would collaborate with three local universities to develop new modules on how to care and nurture OKU children.
This includes Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) which will develop a generic OKU children care and nurturing module.
Meanwhile, Universiti Malaya (UM) and Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia (UIAM) will be in charge of developing modules on caring for OKU children with autism and those with down syndrome respectively.
“Through this, there will be more healthcare workers that are trained in caring for OKU students.
“This will ensure that the specific needs of OKU children are met so that they are not left behind in the mainstream world,” she said.
Nancy also revealed that the government had yet to fill its 1% quota of public sector positions for OKU as of this year.
She attributed this due to a number of factors including some older government buildings not being able to accommodate the needs of OKU staff and a lack of incentive for OKUs to join the public sector.
