A native rights group has called for the Sarawak state government to introduce a community-based school concept for Penan children in order to address their poor participation in the schooling system.

The Borneo Resources Institute Malaysia (Brimas) said a community-based school concept would be the best way to address the needs of the Penan community and to enable their children to acquire proper and formal education.

"The community-based school concept is a simple approach to inculcate the students' interest in education, parental participation and general awakening of the community to be responsible and take charge of their own school development and progress," said the organisation in a press statement.

Brimas said its proposal would help address the problems faced by the state education department in educating Penan children.

"The Education Act states that it is the obligation of the government to bring education to the Penan community. The government must set up school facilities and it must ensure that these are in line with the Penans' immediate needs."

Alien environment

According to the organisation, past initiatives by the state government have failed because they did not take into account unique factors faced by the community such as the distant location of their settlements and villages from schools, the socially and culturally inappropriate school curriculum, the Penans' way of life as a hunter-gatherers, as well as the children's poor adaptability to a regular boarding and formal school environment.

"Since an early age, Penan children are taught to forage in the forest. The majority of Penans live as hunter-gatherers so their children are trained to (roam) the environment freely. They may feel a sense of insecurity in an environment alien to them," the NGO added.

Meanwhile, Brimas said the state government should also adopt some lessons from the organisation's community-based pre-school project in two Penan villages - Long Latei and Ba Abang in Sarawak's Baram district.

The pilot project, which was started in 1998, educates 60 children at pre-school level each year.

"The project is aimed at educating Penan children aged between four and six on literacy skills, health education and their own culture. These centres have received tremendous support and encouragement from the parents and members of the villages.

"Once they have completed their pre-school education, the children continue their studies at the nearest government primary school. They do well just as other native children," said Brimas.

Native communities in rural areas have long suffered from high dropout rates among school-aged children.

In addition to the common complaints over the lack of suitability of the national school curriculum to their needs, Penan communities are particularly vulnerable to the drop-out problem because of the remoteness of their settlements.