School administrators urged to support Education Ministry’s initiative
The Ministry of Education (MoE)’s initiative to allow children without proper documentation to enrol at public schools will not succeed without the support of school administrators, says Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching.
She said MoE needed continuous support from the school administrators as it still received reports from elected representatives about children without proper documentation being barred from schools.
“I feel really sad ... although the announcement has been made by the Education Minister (Dr Maszlee Malik) but ultimately, how can we be sure that all that have been announced by the government will be implemented smoothly by the schools.
“Whether this initiative will achieve its goal … whether the people will see the changes (brought by the government) is all up to the school. I want all teachers and principals to understand the policy,” she said here yesterday.
Teo said this in her speech when officiating the National Professional Qualification for Executive Leadership (NPQEL) 1/2019 at the Aminuddin Baki Institute (IAB) here, that was also attended by Education Malaysia deputy director-general (Education Operations Sector) Shaari Osman and AIB director Dr Mehander Singh Nahar Singh.
She was referring to MOE’s initiative to allow children without proper documentation to enrol into government schools as long as one of their parents is a Malaysian citizen.
Later, in a press conference, Teo expressed her hope that the issue of allowing children without proper documentation to enrol at government school would be resolved, reflecting the ministry’s commitment to give access to education to all Malaysians.
“In fact, children without proper documentation are allowed to sit for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) and the Primary School Achievement Test (UPSR) and yet I still receive complaints about them being disallowed from sitting for exams.
Earlier, Teo in her speech also stressed that children with special needs, from the Orang Asli community, persons with disabilities and those from the low-income group B40 as well as children without proper documentation would not be left behind in the national education stream. - Bernama