Stateless children can attend school while applying for citizenship, says Ahmad Zahid (Updated)

PUTRAJAYA: Children presently in a limbo over their citizenship status as they apply to be Malaysians have the right to attend government schools, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said today.
"While their (Malaysian citizenship) application is being processed, the Education Ministry must allow such children to attend school with a blanket approval.
"Those having issues to admit their children in respective schools can refer their cases to the Education Ministry for a faster resolution," he told reporters after officiating the Home Ministry's monthly assembly, here.
Ahmad Zahid who is also Home Minister stressed that citizenship application documents submitted to the National Registration Department (NRD), an agency which falls under the ministry, should suffice for the schools to enable the affected children to pursue their education.
"The NRD receives no less than 100,000 applications for the MyKid identity cards and there are 11 categories which some of these children fall under which contributes to the delay or rejection for approval.
"Some of the reasons which cause delays are applications involving children born out of wedlock, or adopted children whose adoption process or documentation is not complete," he added.
Ahmad Zahid was responding to reports of a seven-year-old girl who had been denied admission to a school in Seremban, Negri Sembilan pending her citizenship application.
The girl known as Dasrhana who was adopted just days after she was born in Seremban in November 2011, was denied entry to the school as she did not possess a passport and is presently classified as a non-citizen due to a lack of information about her biological parents.
Her adoptive parents, lorry driver B. Ganesan, 46, and wife V. Malliga, 48, were recognised as her legal guardians when her adoption was completed in 2015.
It is learnt that the Education Ministry has since granted a pass to allow Darshana to attend school following an appeal.
In a similar case in Johor Baru, a 10-year-old girl was forced to discontinue her education at a government school after she was unable to produce her passport.
The girl, known as "Ah Mei", was born in Malaysia before her Malaysian father and Indonesian mother formally registered their marriage, so she has no identity card.
Ah Mei had studied at a government primary school in Kulai, Johor for three years, as she previously had a special student permit which are issued to stateless children in order for them to attend government schools.
However, when she tried to renew her student permit this year, the Education Ministry requested for her passport, claiming that this was a new requirement implemented by the Immigration Department.