‘Govt apathy reason for lack of education among Orang Asli’

An Orang Asli from Cameron Highlands says bad roads to secondary schools make it hard for Orang Asli children to continue studies.

CAMERON HIGHLANDS: A member of the Orang Asli Semai tribe here has blamed the government’s apathy towards his people as one of the main reasons why they don’t continue their studies in school.

In an interview with FMT in his village here, the man said there are no secondary schools near their villages.

“Secondary education is a rare thing as they have to go out of their villages. With the kind of bad roads here it is not surprising that Orang Asli children do not attend secondary schools much,” he said.

The man said that even the body meant to look out for the welfare of Orang Asli, the Department of Orang Asli Development (Jakoa), was unable to help.

“Jakoa is inefficient. They do not really feel for the plight of the Orang Asli.

“For Jakoa, teachers and other civil servants, the Orang Asli is just a fringe remote group not in the Malaysian mainstream.”

He admitted that although Orang Asli children did go to primary schools in their village, many dropped out even before finishing their Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) examination.

“How can the Orang Asli children go for secondary and tertiary education when they can’t even properly finish UPSR?

“The Orang Asli girls are even more vulnerable as even today, at the age of 14, they are being married off. Thereafter, their only function is to have children.”

He said the Orang Asli survive by cultivating their land. They plant rubber, bamboo, banana trees, tapioca, padi and other small crops like petai.

“They also work in the vegetable farms, flower farms and do some work on the dam construction.

“Others do collection of honey and other forest products. In some parts, they grow durians which middlemen buy cheaply but sell at very high prices outside.”

In October, Deputy Education Minister Chong Sin Woon said the ministry viewed seriously Orang Asli children dropping out of school.

Bernama quoted him as saying that efforts had been made to address the problem, including the setting up of Comprehensive Special Model School Year 9 (K9) and the training of teachers from the Orang Asli community itself.

“We have an education development plan for the Orang Asli because we do not want the Orang Asli children to drop out from schools,” he told reporters after the “Jalinan Kasih” programme with the Orang Asli community in Kampung Gebok in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan. -FMT