MALAYSIA’S progress in making education more inclusive for children of migrants and refugees is too slow, according to the 2019 Global Education Monitoring Report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) published today in conjunction with International Children’s Day.

According to the report, entitled Migration, Displacement and Education: Building Bridges Not Walls, the right of migrant and refugee children to quality education, though increasingly recognised on paper, is challenged daily in classrooms and schoolyards and denied outright by a few governments.

The report said that in Sabah, children of Filipino and Indonesian migrants are identified as foreigners on birth certificates and cannot attend public schools.

The same goes for Rohingya children who are denied access to education in Malaysia due to their protracted statelessness.

Manos Antoninis, director of the report, said that “considerable changes are being made in countries… to make education more inclusive for children, no matter their identification or residency status”.

“It is time for Malaysia to do the same.”

While curricula can be adapted locally to embrace diversity, the report said, not all school heads are aware of the issues, motivated, or equipped to lead the development of intercultural understanding in their schools.

It said school leaders in Malaysia who were asked to implement intercultural programmes were hampered by lack of guidance from the government and little autonomy for adaptation.

Particular emphasis was made on the chronic education needs of refugee children with disabilities in the country.

Learning centre teachers in Malaysia observed that some families with limited means kept children with disabilities out of school in favour of sending their siblings.

The report listed seven recommendations for the education of migrants and displaced people – protecting their rights, including them in the national education system, understanding and planning their education needs, representing their histories accurately in education to challenge prejudices, preparing teachers to address diversity and hardship, and harnessing their potential and supporting their education through humanitarian and development aid. – Bernama, November 20, 2018.