Positive response so far, says Dept
Published on: Thursday, February 21, 2019
By: Lagatah Toyos
TAWAU: State Education Director Mistirine Radin described as positive, the acceptance of undocumented students into public schools in Sabah, reportedly the highest in the country.
She urged parents who have yet to send their children to school due to incomplete documents to not hesitate in getting their children registered at the nearest District Education Office.
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“We hope they (parents) will go to the nearest District Education Office to register their children.
“We will provide them with the correct guidelines and forms.
“We have a Standard Operating Procedure on how to help these parents. There is no need to worry,” she said.
She explained that there is a special provision that allows non-citizen children to enter public schools, but there are special rules to be followed. If they meet the criteria and set rules, then only will they be accepted.
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She, however, couldn’t provide data when asked which district in Sabah had the highest acceptance of undocumented students.
Mistirine said this after attending the Bicara Profesional Pengarah Pendidikan Sabah Peringkat Zone Pantai Timur 2019 programme held at SJK( c ) Yuk Chin, Wednesday.
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The event was attended by 525 participants from Lahad Datu, Kunak, Semporna and Tawau. Also present was her Deputy Director Datuk Dr Mohd Kassim Mohd Ibrahim.
Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik had earlier said that 2,635 undocumented bumiputera children have been accepted into national schools since Pakatan Harapan came into power, and that Sabah recorded the highest number with 1,961 and Sarawak with 263.
On another development, Mistirine said they would probe the case of a principal who allegedly failed to show up at school and disciplinary action would be taken if true.
The principal reportedly did not attend school from Jan. 2 to Feb. 18, but his attendance was recorded on the online attendance form.
She said the matter needs to be thoroughly investigated to prevent anyone from being framed, be it the complainant or the complained.
On the programme at hand, she said, the East Coast Zone is the fourth out of seven zones that has conducted the programme which allows her, as the newly appointed director, to get acquainted with educators throughout Sabah while explaining the Education Ministry’s policies.
She urged school principal administrators to be vigorous and disciplined in ensuring the outstanding achievements of their institutions.
“No school will excel if it is led by a principal who doesn’t excel,” she said.
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