By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, June 21: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Kuching calls on the Sarawak Education Department to take a humanitarian stance in handling and accepting all stateless children in the State to ensure that all Sarawakian children receive formal education to allow them to contribute to the future of Sarawak, or even to become the future leaders of Sarawak.
Its chief, Dominique Ng, claimed that there are thousands of stateless children in Sarawak, many of whom are in cities like Kuching, who are not allowed access to formal education because of their parents’ nationality issues, which is very regrettable.
“I call on the federal education department in Sarawak to set aside their bureaucratic approach and do their best to provide assistance to ensure that all children of school age may enrol in the nearest schools,” said Ng in a statement today.
The statement was issued following an event where he distributed 20 Madani boxes of food aid to a non-profit education centre in Kuching—the D’Wira Education Centre yesterday.
Ng urged the Ministry of Education to fully assist all similar welfare non-profit education organisations in Sarawak, including the provision of funds, educational materials, and teaching staff.
“Children are innocent. No matter what family they come from, they have the right to receive primary and basic education.
“Most stateless children are Sarawak children who were born of non-Sarawakian mothers though they may have Sarawak fathers, and are permanently resident and are raised in Sarawak,” said Ng, who is also a practising lawyer.
He said the D’Wira Education Centre provides the most basic educational opportunities for stateless children who are not able to go to government schools.
The D’Wira Education Centre provides early childhood education for children aged four to six based on the Montessori educational system and also provides primary school education from Grades 1 to 6. It accepts children of all races and religions, thus fully reflecting the multicultural and multiracial nature of Sarawak.
In addition, the education centre also provides school bus services to transport children to and from the school for those who have transportation problems. Most of the teachers in the education centre are volunteers or receive very low allowances.
The D’Wira Education Centre is kindly supported by other welfare and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and social figures. — DayakDaily
