‘Do not let children suffer for lack of a passport’

 

Many children are being denied places in schools because they are adopted and have no way of proving that one of their biological parents is a Malaysian. (Putri Purnama Sugua pic)

PETALING JAYA: The government has to explain why the passport requirement for stateless children in government schools has been suddenly reintroduced when the requirement was scrapped in 2018.

Former deputy education minister Teo Nie Ching said she was surprised that the pre-2018 ruling has been quietly reinstated, especially in Penang.

A parent, MV Krishnan, 64, had complained on Tuesday that his 13-year-old adopted daughter could not enter Form One this year because of this new policy.

“The education department told us we must furnish her passport to enrol her in a government school because she is not a Malaysian citizen,” he was reported as saying.

He said he had adopted the girl when she was an infant.

Teo Nie Ching.

Krishnan is said to be one of 19 parents in Penang who are facing similar issues with their adopted children.

Teo said a similar case, involving adopted stateless children in Johor, was reported to her last year. The boy’s adoptive parents were told to show a “student pass” from the immigration department before being allowed into school.

After she wrote a letter to the education ministry, the student was allowed to enrol in January this year, she said.

“It appears that the ministry does not have a consistent policy. Are there too many little Napoleons and ignorant officers who do not understand simple policy? The ministry must rectify this immediately,” she told FMT.

The crux of the issue lies in a Jan 15, 2018 circular allowing stateless children to be admitted in government schools, said Maalini Ramalo from the Development of Human Resources for Rural Areas (DHRRA).

Maalini Ramalo.

She said the circular only says non-citizens can attend school if one of their parents is Malaysian or if the student is an adopted child of a Malaysian. It does not mention stateless children, leaving them in a vacuum.

Maalini said the latest passport requirement might have been caused by this grey area where statelessness is not explained explicitly, forcing the education department to demand for a travel document.

She said that in the past, DHRRA has assisted close to 200 “stateless” children in gaining admission into schools by making the necessary applications and paying their fees.

Maalini said the adopted stateless children in Penang should have been easily admitted in schools as their legal guardians were Malaysians.

Madeline Berma.

“But in our years of work, we have had multiple scenarios of officers demanding passports despite this circular that was issued in January of 2018,” she said.

Madeline Berma, a former member of the government Education Policy Review Committee, said the latest passport requirement shows that the ministry has foregone its “zero reject policy” introduced by former minister Maszlee Malik.

She said the policy was meant to ensure that all children had access to education, regardless if they were documented or not.

Andrian Pereira.

Human rights activist Adrian Pereira said Malaysia, as a signatory to the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child, had to allow all children to be educated regardless of their documentation status.

Under the previous Pakatan Harapan government, adopted stateless children were only required to present their adoption certificates, a court-affirmed adoption certificate or a Social Welfare Department’s “Borang 13” in order to enrol in government schools.

However, in Penang, at least 10 children have been refused admission to schools due to the passport requirement. - FMT