Child without Birth Cert finally accepted to school

It is not true that if children without Birth Certs are not allowed to school.

It has been approved in Jemaah Menteri (Cabinet) in January 2008 that as long as any of the children's parents is a citizen and her Ketua Kampung can confirm the status, then schools have to accept the school enrolment of the children.

(However, the Circular or Surat Pekeliling only issued in March 2009)

The Circular ref no. is Ikhtisas Bil. 1/2009. You need to get form mentioned at the bottom of this message (last two paragraphs). Anyway I have gone through a long process to find out all this.

A father of a child from Nibong Tebal has approached my YB's office in Aug 2008 to seek help to get his child a Birth Cert. The man was an unmarried father who has met a lady whom he claimed was an Orang Asli from Jerantut Pahang. The child was claimed born in 2002 in the lady's village, and was not reported to Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (National Registration Department) for birth.

The child was with the mother for about 2 years before surrendered by the mother to the man. The man only realized that the child was without necessary document after a while and was too late to trace the mother's whereabout since then.

The first thing that need is to get the child accepted to school as he was 7 years old by 2009. I searched all relevant website for how to get things done. I encountered old news reported made by Dato' Seri Hishamuddin, the Minister of Education then, announced in Feb 2008 that "Children without Birth Certificates can now go to school".

However when I approached the Department of Education then, in August 2008, I was told that the department has not received such instruction from the authority. Feeling disappointed, I wrote a memo to a MP to bring this to Parliament. However there was no any progress after that.

On and off the man came back to me in following 2 years. We have approached to Social Welfare Department, National Registration Department and Jabatan Hal Ehwal Orang Asli in Pahang. We even tried to register the school enrolment as foreigner registration.

On 11 Dec 2009, I received two calls (one from the man and one from my Pulau Tikus DAP volunteer Ms. Rachel Tan, specially dedicate a note of thanks to her hereby) informing me that paper has came out some progress on this issue.

From there, I quickly get to parliament website and download the hansard (http://www.parlimen.gov.my/hansard.php) dated 10 Dec 2009. I search under name of YB Tan Tee Beng and found his question. Yahoo, the question is straight forward related to this case, and thanks god, the reference number of the Surat Pekeliling or Circular, was quoted in the hansard, Ikhtisas Bil. 1/2009 dated 11 Mac 2009.

I further searched the reference number, and found that circular was uploaded in the Portal Rasmi PPD Kubang Pasu (http://ppdkubangpasu.net/download.php?report.1287), which is the Kubang Pasu District Education Office . Done. Everything done. I was jumping joy and quickly called the man to move further. What we need now is to get a Ketua Kampung (Chairman of local JKKK) to confirm the relationship of the father and son. Although the Ketua Kampung has not known this man before, but base on the man's Statutory Declaration to the relationship, the Ketua Kampung agreed to sign.

On 29 Dec 2009, the man went to the State Education Dept and apply for his son registration to school. However, the application was rejected despite he shown the officer there the Surat Pekeliling. I explain to the officer through phone but in vain.

On 31 Dec 2009, I went to the department again with the man. We went to Unit Sekolah Rendah and met a Penyelia Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina. At first she was advising that the letter was not applicable to child without birth cert at all, as no evidence of the relationship. I explained by showing the Parliament Hansard, letter from Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat (Social Welfare Department) and the letter from Ketua Kampung.

At last the Penyelia agreed with the content of the Surat Pekeliling. We were given two forms to complete :
1) Borang SR/KSLPTSK(Pin08) - Kemasukan Semula / Lewat Pendaftaran / Tiada Sijil Kelahiran the child was accepted.
2) Lampiran 1 - Surat Akuan Penghulu / Ketua Kaum / Ketua Kampung.
We then completed and submitted above two forms, the child was immediately granted acceptance letter by the department.

So, important thing for closing this case was the parliament hansard dated 10/12/09 and the Surat Pekeliling Ikhtisas Bil. 1/2009, plus the letter from Ketua Kampung.