Jun 17 2008
Kids without birth cert expelled from tamil schools
Well, i think the community should learn from illegal immigrants on how they go their PR and other documents. Interested parties who are concerned for the community can set up a fund to pay for such documents. I’m sure there are many syndicates who can help 
Depending on the relevant agencies will take forever, so might as well look for alternative avenues. The foreigners are enjoying more benefit due to their “initiatives”. Why not learn from them?
Remember just before election, MIC Youth hijacked an independent group’s (Makkal Sakthi?) programme and went around the nation to register Indians without identity documents? Wonder what happened to those applications. Wait for next election campaign is it?
Since Pakatan had taken over Selangor, Perak, Penang and Kedah, all states with high number of Indians, perhaps they should re-initiate action to get people without proper identification documents registered. Even when MIC Youth held the program in Klang, many people from other races also turned up. So, this is a common problem among the poor and rural inhabitants.
School kids expelled for not having birth certs
Indrani Kopal | Jun 17, 08 2:08pmhttp://malaysiakini.com/news/84592
Human rights and social welfare groups are increasingly concerned that up to 40,000 ‘paperless’ Indian Malaysian children in Selangor may be deprived of an education.
Last year, 13 students who failed to produce their birth certificates were expelled from their Tamil primary school - the SRJK (T) Vallambrosa in Kapar.
According to Educational, Welfare And Research Foundation president SP Pathi, Malaysians who find themselves without birth certificates and identity cards face tremendous problems in their daily lives.
The Indian community is particularly affected due to their socio-economic background. “They are not educated and they don’t see the need to legalise (themselves with the necessary) documentation and all that,” said Pathi.
“We are concern that children between the age of 7 to 12 are being denied basic education,” he said. “Their formative years are very important.”
On Sunday, Human Rights Commission’s N Siva Subramaniam visited two such children - V Gunaseelan, 7, and his sister, Puvaneswary, 8 - in their dilapidated house in Kapar (above).
Siva argued that by denying these children their right to education, the government was indirectly paving the way for “more social problems in the future”. “When you can use (the lack of) documentation to stop them from going to school, as they grow up, they will become the nation’s problem - like the street children in Sabah,” lamented Siva.
He said the issue of not having birth certificates was mostly due to children being born out of wedlock or the negligence of married couples who failed to register their marriage.
In the case of Gunaseelan and Puvaneswary, their father abandoned their mother, M Susila, 44 (right), soon after the last of the six children was born.
School told to expel the kids?
Klang Consumer Associations president A Devdass, who accompanied the Suhakam commissioner in his visit to Kapar, complained that Tamil schools regularly receive directive from the Selangor Educational Department not to enrol children without birth certificates.
“It’s only a mere documentation,” he decried. “We cannot deprive a child of his or her educational rights.”
In their bid to highlight the matter, the Tamil Foundation and the Educational, Welfare and Research Foundation of Malaysia called a joint press conference yesterday. Tamil Foundation president Uthayasoorian K (right) asked whether it was true that government schools had been instructed by the authorities to expel children without birth certificates despite they were already enrolled.
He also said the complexity of obtaining the relevant documentation from the various authorities could be daunting for some of the uneducated parents. The problem is further compounded by the lack of cooperation among government departments including the state education departments, the National Registration Department and the Registrar of Marriages.
Uthayasoorian called on schools to play a more active role in resolving the situation instead of denying children of their education. “They can become an agent for registering these kids,” he said.
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