Fadhlina Centre For Stateless Kids In Sabah Coming Next Month

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INTERVIEW | One of the key areas in which young people fall through the cracks is that of stateless children denied education because of the lack of documentation.
And it upsets Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek, who stressed the present administration is committed to addressing this problem.
“That’s why we want to strengthen the Sekolah Jalinan Kasih concept. We only have one institution in Chow Kit, with a maximum capacity of 200.
“What we’re doing now is expanding the programme. We are not building more Sekolah Jalinan Kasih, but we are going to extend the programme.
“We will launch it in Sabah at the end of this month. And later on, we will expand to other areas with high numbers of stateless children.
“We are working with Sarawak because they will have their own ways of handling it. However, we will launch in Sabah first because we know it is an area with many (stateless) cases,” she told Malaysiakini in an exclusive interview.
The first-term Nibong Tebal MP acknowledged that it would be a new challenge and said that the government has seen how children in Sekolah Jalinan Kasih have achieved success.
“We have to look at it holistically. Children without documentation often have low self-esteem. They are vulnerable to falling prey to various social ills.
“That’s why we must give them a support system, it’s not just about documents but their overall development,” she said.
Fadhlina added that the ministry’s actions in Sabah are also based on Suhakam's report about stateless children and what was being done by NGOs that are helping them.
“We visited an NGO which has helped undocumented children get an education. We open our doors to anyone who wants to help,” she said.
Fadhlina also said that aside from improving facilities from the Education Ministry’s side, teachers and staff need to engage with parents to ensure they are committed to the idea of attending schools.
“In Malaysia Madani's economic concept, there is an emphasis on community participation in education. With the Orang Asli, we have a programme directly with their parents. We teach the mother and father to read so they can help their children at home.
“This special model is very important for the Orang Asli children and those in remote areas to get them to attend school from Year 1 to Form 5.
“We are aiming for zero dropouts, there will be no logistical issues because they stay in a dormitory or nearby house,” she said.
Fadhlina added that the policy of “leaving no one behind” was for children in marginalised situations while the “zero reject” policy was for special needs children.
Education standards decline
Fadhlina, who studied at UKM and the International Islamic University of Malaysia, is well aware of the perception that there has been an overall decline in Malaysian education standards over the past few decades.
“I would rather not call it a decline but look at it as a challenge, there's always an opportunity and there's always a way to improve ourselves
“The Education Ministry is a very complex ministry - huge and always facing challenges.
“But we are encouraged to see, for example, SK Seri Permai in Bayan Baru, Penang being shortlisted among the top 10 of the World's Best Schools for Innovation - SK Kanchong Darat, Banting, Selangor, listed in the Top 10 shortlist for the World's Best School Prize for the Supporting Healthy Lives and there was also Kuantan’s SK Kempadang last year.
“These three schools prove that we can have success based on our own models, but we must find a way to make it wide-ranging.
“Under the Malaysian Education Blueprint, we are improving the quality of education and at the same time, we have to address weaknesses specifically,” she said.
Lessons learnt from pandemic
Touching on challenges, Fadhlina said that bridging the gap in access between top urban schools and remote schools with poor facilities was a key problem that needed to be resolved.
“When we say leave no one behind, it’s always about access. We can start with providing scholastic facilities in hospitals for example, for those children who drop out due to health problems. We can have a school in the correctional centre.
“We have a Jalinan Kasih school for stateless, poor and vulnerable children. I think we have some challenges but we're going for it. There’s no giving up on this,” said Fadhlina.
She also said that the pandemic-related lockdowns were also an eye-opener.
“It has actually made us more resilient to challenges. I really appreciate those teachers who did everything to ensure access to education during the lockdown.
“That's why we launched the National Digital Education Policy because, if we are to face another pandemic shock, we must be ready.” - Mkini

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