KUALA LUMPUR: EDUCATION is one of the vehicles that created opportunities for children and families to come out from poverty which is not only a lifetime trap and very difficult to overcome, but has devastating impacts on them.

According to a statement signed by 105 organisations and individuals today, denying those children education was effectively imprisoning them as well as their future in poverty as they were not numbers or statistics, but real lives that are damaged by some act of behaviours and response.

"Note that while we have spoken here about education, the same right should also apply to health access for all children. We appeal to the Education Ministry to enforce our national policy and aspiration to provide quality education to all children in Malaysia," the statement read.

Among the signatories were Consultant Paediatrician Datuk Dr Amar-Singh HSS; president of Medico Legal Society of Malaysia Datuk Dr Venugopal Balchand; Children's Commissioner Prof Noor Aziah Mohd Awal; OKU Sentral deputy president Ahmad Daniel Sharani; Asia Community Service; Childline Foundation and Yayasan Chow Kit.

The statement stated that any nation that does not provide food, shelter, education and health to all children as a basic right, regardless of their documented status, is a failed nation.

It said the recent incident of a nine-year-old girl in Sarawak, who was denied access to education because of her documentation status is heart-wrenching as she is one of a large number of children in Malaysia who were denied their basic right to education, some born to Malaysian parents.

"A conservative estimate suggests that in excess of 300,000 children in Malaysia are currently denied education as a result of being stateless, refugees, asylum-seekers or undocumented.

"What is confusing is that this denial of access to education takes place in the face of national policies that support education for all children in Malaysia, regardless of their documentation status," the statement said.

On Feb 24, the Borneo Post portal reported that a mother of a nine-year-old girl received a text message saying that her daughter was no longer allowed to attend one of the primary schools as she did not have identity documents.

-- BERNAMA



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