Eight-year-old Siti Robiah Muhamad Jamri had hoped to start Standard One at SK Dalam Wang in with other children her age but was turned down because her birth certificate recorded her as a non-citizen.

Siti Robiah who was born at the Baling Hospital is of Malaysian-Thai parentage. Her father Muhamad Jamri Husin, 34, is Malaysian while mother Aishah Wadot, 29, was born in Betong, southern Thailand.

Howver, she was raised in Kampung Dalam Wang here since she was three.

Her five-year-old sister owns a MyKid Malaysian identification document while another sister, aged two, shares the same fate as Siti Robiah.

Muhamad Jamri said he had gone to SK Dalam Wang in the Pulai sub-district to register his daughter for school in early 2010 but was sent away on grounds that Siti Robiah was not a Malaysian citizen.

He said the Baling district education office instead provided a form for him to enrol his daughter at a private school located in Kuala Ketil, near Baling.

"I had explained the situation but they still refused to accept her.

"Because my wife does not have an identification card (non-citizen), we could not get married in Baling and had to do so in Betong nine years ago.

"My daughter was born here in Baling and is a Malaysian citizen, so why can't she study at a government school?" he said to Bernama.

Muhamad Jamri, who expressed his regret that Siti Robiah would be left behind in school, added that his daughter's birth certificate also stated that she was a non-citizen based on his marriage certificate which was issued by the Yala province Islamic religious council.

- Bernama