That Was Quick!

Keep it up!. At least it shows someone with a heart is watching! Now keep looking for Tamilarasi and ensure she continues studying.

Happy ending for pupils without birth certificates

SEREMBAN: Eight pupils who were abruptly barred from SJKT Ladang Linsum in February for not having birth certificates are to resume classes today.

Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong and Cabinet Committee on the Indian Community in the Prime Minister's Department consultant Datuk N. Siva Subramaniam stepped in to resolve the issue yesterday, following a report in The Star which highlighted the pupils' plight.

Dr Wee said the ministry had issued a circular in March 2009 clarifying that as long as one parent was a citizen, children without birth certificates could attend school.

Expressing regret over the episode, Siva Subramaniam said he met officials from the school and the state education department yesterday and it was decided that the pupils would be allowed to return to school.

End of plight: Siva Subramaniam (centre) and Mogan (third from left) giving an assurance to the seven pupils that they would be allowed to return to school. – UU BAN/ The Star

He explained that under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, even if the parents were non-Malaysians, the child should be allowed to attend school after filling up the necessary documents.

He said there were many children without proper documentation in the country but all had the right to be in school.

“We managed to register some 14,000 people without proper documents in the recent MyDaftar campaign. Under Phase Two of the programme, we will extend this to schools nationwide,” Siva Subramaniam said, adding that several thousand children were said to be in the same predicament.

The eight are siblings L. Nisha, 10, Pavitra, nine, and Teeban, eight, orphaned cousins S. Meganathan, 11, and Mahaletchumy, seven, another orphan C. Jayasutha 12, K. Tamilarasi, nine, and G. Arvind, eight.

K. Tamilarasi could not be located after she was stopped from attending school.

The school had barred the pupils from attending classes after being told by the state Education Department that headmasters who allowed such pupils in their schools would be fined RM1,000 for each student.

MIC Information chief Datuk V.S. Mogan said parents with such children should get letters from their respective village heads, community leaders or elected representatives to clarify their status.

Meanwhile, eight-year-old orphan K. Jeganathan was also wearing a big smile yesterday.

He can now attend classes at the SJKT Lobak after being turned away on the first day of school last year because his parents did not register his birth.

Jeganathan and his seven-year-old brother Nagulan were issued a letter by the National Registration Department confirming their birth certificates were being processed to enable them to go to school.