Seven-year-old half-Thai girl receives nod to attend school

GEORGE TOWN: Seven year old Thai — born Patcharamai Chailungka received an early Lunar New Year cheer when she was finally accorded approval to enrol in a national public primary school despite that she was earlier designated as stateless because she only has a Thai and not a Malaysian birth certificate.
She was given special approval by the Education Ministry to study for at least two years, pending the process of the family to change her status to a naturalised Malaysian.
Patcharamai is one of the 30 children in a similar predicament here but she managed to win approval due to the persistent nature of the PKR citizenship approval bureau, who had pursued the case for the past 12 — months after been told of her plight.
On Wednesday and in conjunction with St Valentine's Day, the lass was gifted with love from her family and her grandfather, as she walked into the SJKC Shih Chung Sungai Nibong branch vernacular school in Taman Lip Sin; finally as a student.
She will join hundreds of her new schoolmates, make friends and take the first step towards attaining her dream of becoming a doctor.
Patcharamai waved to the well wishes including her grandfather H'ng Bak Hai and the bureau chairperson A. Kumerasen, who said that children of foreign parents, can enrol in public schools if one of their parent, is a Malaysian.
But the bureaucratic process is quite lengthy due to the paperwork that is needed to convince the National Registration Department that she has valid grounds to study in a public school, said Kumarasen.
In this case, he had to retrieve the girl's birth certificate with the help of the Malaysian consular authorities in Thailand.
Then, he had to write several letters to the education authorities and Home Ministry, seeking for an intervention as the girl was raised in Malaysia, and her father is a citizen of this country.
Patcharamai's mother was a Thai woman, who was initially married to her father H'ng Wei Liang, a restaurant manager.
However her mother decided not to return to Malaysia after giving birth to Patcharamai in Thailand; without realising that her action was going to complicate things for her child, who was returned to live with Wei Liang in Penang.
Asked to say a few words, the shy girl thanked everyone who had helped her, and she promised to be a good student.