Education is the right of every child
Every single child in Malaysia, no matter what condition they are in, deserves to have access to education.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin told the Dewan Negara that even street urchins should be taken off the streets and sent to schools.
"Fundamentally, education is the right of every single child," said Muhyiddin, who is also the Education Minister, during question time.
"It doesn't matter whether the child does not have proper identification documents, whether they are living on the streets, poor or parentless, all of them deserve to be in schools."
He was responding to Sabahan Senator Datuk Maijol Mahap, who had highlighted the plight of unschooled street urchins in the latter's supplementary question.
Muhyiddin said the government provides education even to children of non-Malaysian citizens, including children of migrants who work as labourers.
"The ministry has approved a policy, in which children of foreigners are granted alternative education. This 'alternative education' is not executed in a formal manner as per the practice in our present national school system.
"This 'alternative education' stressed on the basic aspects of 3M, which is Reading, Calculating and Writing, the aspects of national identity and values as well as living skills.
"The ministry will collaborate with various agencies and NGOs to ensure this policy is executed properly," said Muhyiddin.
In terms of budget, the Pagoh MP said the cost involved were minimal, therefore the ministry was more than capable of providing the infrastructure.
Muhyiddin said this was the Education Ministry's commitment towards the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef)'s Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
"The need to provide education to all children in the country is also the government's continuous effort in accomplishing Unesco's (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Education For All (EFA) programme and the "Reaching the Unreached" programme.".
According to Muhyiddin, based on survey findings, there are roughly 43,000 children in the country who are currently not attending schools.
"But this is not an exact figure. In fact, it could easily be two to three times more, close to 100,000." - The Malay Mail