The Malaysian Insight

ONE in five Malaysian children does not complete secondary education, said a report on the status of child rights in the country.

According to the Status Report on Child Rights in Malaysia 2018, children are only required to finish six years of primary schooling. 

“And for those in Sarawak and other rural areas that do not have easy access to secondary schools, they were married off for economic reasons,” said the report that was released today.

The report, however, does not explain why the children dropped out of school or where it is happening.

“Out of 182,409 post-Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) candidates, only 17,338 were offered to those from the B40 group, 299 to the disabled, 348 to Orang Asli and 1,225 to sports athletes to pursue education at the tertiary level,” said the segment of the report on education and child development, which was prepared by SPOT’s Siti Aishah Hassan.

The report said the situation is the worst for stateless children, who can only go to alternative learning centres as they do not have any legal documents.

It said as many as 43,973 undocumented children in Malaysia are reported to be out of schools.

“As at the end of August 2019, there are more than 33,600 refugee children of school-going aged 3 to 17 registered with UNHCR in Malaysia. Of this, only 55% are in primary education and 27% in secondary education.”

It said a new policy that allowed all stateless and undocumented children to go to school should be in place to address this. – December 20, 2019.