THE Ministry of Education (MoE) should not allow Immigration authorities to decide whether stateless children were allowed to enrol in government schools, said Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching.

Following a circular from the Immigration Department on Decembr 28, stateless children are now required to produce their passports for admission in schools.

“Possession of a passport is never a pre-condition for school admission. 

“The question now is, why is MoE allowing 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 MoE?” Teo said in a statement today.

She said the ministry already had school admission guidelines drawn up according to the regulations governing school enrolment enforced since 1998.

Under these rules, non-citizens may enrol in government schools if they were children whose parents are diplomatic corp members; if their non-Malaysian parents are in the service of any government agency, statutory body or other place of employment with a valid work permit; if their parents are permanent residents of Malaysia; and if the children are selected by the federal government for schooling in Malaysia under international bilateral agreements.

Teo added that there were close to 300,000 stateless children in Malaysia. They were stateless for a variety of reasons, including abandonment at birth, inability to trace the birth parents, or the failure of the parents, one of whom may be a foreigner, to register their marriage.

“Many of them are the children of Malaysian citizens. MoE should never allow possession of passport to be one of the prerequisite for school admission, or many stateless children will be denied such a basic right,” said Teo, who is also Wanita Pakatan Harapan secretary.

She said education was a universal human right that was recognised in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which Malaysia has yet to sign. January 6, 2018.