DAP rep wants education regulation requiring proof of parents’ marriage scrapped

KUALA LUMPUR – Bukit Gasing assemblyman Rajiv Rishyakaran has called for amendments to an education regulation that requires parents’ marriage certificate to be produced during their children’s school registration.

Unimpressed by the Education Ministry’s response to his objection to the contentious requirement, he urged for the unnecessary and burdensome condition to be done away with.

The matter is of little significance during school registration, the DAP member told The Vibes.

“Why is the (marriage) certificate so important? I know it is a requirement by the ministry, but how important can it be?

“These children already possess documents proving their Malaysian citizenship. And certainly, you don’t need a marriage certificate to know if the parents are foreigners.”

He was commenting on a statement by a ministry official, who denied that schools are rejecting the registration of students whose parents do not produce such certificates. 

The official, who spoke to The Vibes on condition of anonymity, said parents only need to visit a commissioner for oaths (CO) to make a statutory declaration on their marriage. 

He said the certificate is to identify the status of a child’s parents, including their citizenship, and is a requirement under the Education Regulation (Admission of Students to School) 1998. 

This comes after Rajiv highlighted the case of a 13-year-old who was not allowed to register with a school in Petaling Jaya without the parents’ marriage certificate.

When he contacted the district education office himself, Rajiv said the officers were unable to explain the significance of the document to a student’s registration. 

In most cases where a student is turned away from registration, he said, schools do not properly explain to parents the next course of action to be taken.

“Most of the parents who do not possess a marriage certificate typically come from a very poor background. They won’t understand… heading over to the CO and making a statutory declaration. 

“We are talking about ill-educated, poor families. Many of them would just end up giving up on sending their children to school, as they don’t know what to do.” – The Vibes, December 31, 2020