Woon Dison is seven years old but unlike his peers who are pursuing Year One education in school, he is still in kindergarten.

Dison is stateless despite being Malaysian born. His birth certificate classifies him as "bukan warganegara" (non-citizen).

His predicament likely stemmed from the fact that his parent's marriage was not formally registered in Malaysia.

Wen Long, his father, is a Malaysian married to a foreigner.

Although they eventually filed the necessary paperwork to have their marriage recognised locally, the authorities have yet to decide on Dison's citizenship thereby making him ineligible for receiving a public education.

Dison's predicament, along with that of Ang Chi Heng, 13, was raised by Kinrara assemblyperson Ng Sze Han at a press conference today where he urged the authorities to expedite their citizenship applications.

"The two families are trying very hard to get their children into local schools but they are not allowed to.

"They have appealed multiple times but the reason given by the education minister is they do not hold the valid Malaysian identity cards so they don't qualify," he said.

This was in spite of Putrajaya's recent change in policy direction which now allows stateless children to enroll in public schools while their citizenship applications were being processed.

Both Dison's and Ang's parents have made citizenship applications for their children an annual ritual. Ng said he would be assisting them this year.

Chi Heng was born a Thai citizen but was brought to Malaysia by his Malaysian father and Thai mother 10 years ago.

Just as in Dison's case, the marital status of Chi Heng's parents led to difficulties in obtaining citizenship papers for him.

Chi Heng is presently being home-schooled by relatives and friends.