Passport rule will keep stateless children out of school

MP SPEAKS | Stateless children who have successfully enrolled in government schools last year are now required to produce their passport for admission.

This is because the Immigration Department issued a letter on Dec 28 last year imposing this new condition.

First of all, MOE has its own guidelines for school admission.

According to Peraturan-Peraturan Pendidikan (Penerimaan Masuk Murid Ke Sekolah, Penyimpanan Daftar dan Syarat Bagi Pengekalan Murid Belajar di Sekolah) 1988, which came into force since July 23, 1998, non-citizens can enrol in government schools if they are:

“(a) anak kakitangan kedutaan asing. (Children of foreign embassy staff)

“(b) anak yang ibu bapanya adalah juga bukan warganegara, yang bekerja dalam perkhidmatan atau agensi kerajaan, badan berkanun atau mana-mana tempat lain dengan permit kerja yang sah. (Children whos parents are also non-citizens, who are working in the government service, agencies, entities or other places of work with valid work permits)

“(c) kanak-kanak yang ibu bapanya adalah pemastautin tetap Malaysia. (Children whose parents are permanent residents in Malaysia)

“(d) kanak-kanak yang dipilih oleh Kerajaan kanak-kanak itu untuk melanjutkan pelajarannya di Malaysia menurut mana-mana Memorandum Persefahaman atau Perjanjian antara Kerajaan Malaysia dan Kerajaan negara kanak-kanak itu. (Children who have been selected by the government of their country of origin to further their studies in Malaysia according to any memorandum of understanding or agreement between the Malaysian government and the government of that country).

Possession of passports is never a precondition for school admission. And surely, if children of Malaysian permanent residents can enrol in government schools, there are no reasons why children of Malaysian citizens should be discriminated against.

So the question now is, why is the Education Ministry allowing the Immigration Department to dictate the terms and conditions for school admission of stateless children?

Shouldn’t the power to decide the terms and conditions for school admission in government schools be vested in the Education Ministry?

The right to education has been recognised as a human right in a number of international conventions, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted by the UN General Assembly, which recognises a right to free, compulsory primary education for all, an obligation to develop secondary education accessible to all, in particular by the progressive introduction of free secondary education, as well as an obligation to develop equitable access to higher education. As of 2016, 164 states were parties to the covenant. Sadly, Malaysia is not one of them.

There are close to 300,000 stateless children in Malaysia. Many of them are the children of Malaysian citizens. Therefore the Education Ministry should never allow possession of passport as one of the prerequisite for school admission, or many stateless children will be denied such basic right.

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TEO NIE CHENG is the MP for Kulai and DAP international secretary.- Mkini