School for dropouts, stateless children in Sabah begins operations

Sekolah Bimbingan Jalinan Kasih (SBJK) will start operating in Sabah today as one of the Education Ministry’s efforts to provide access to equal education for all young people, including dropouts, street kids and undocumented children in the state.

Education director-general Pkharuddin Ghazali said the programme implemented at Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Sembulan near Kota Kinabalu is the first to be expanded in Sabah with eight students registered so far.

He said the programme will play a role in ensuring quality and equitable inclusive education and promote lifelong learning opportunities, to ensure that no child is left behind to complete primary and secondary schooling by 2030.

“SBJK students are children of citizens or children of single parents who are citizens from groups like hardcore poor families who have dropped out of school for a long time or children without identity documents.

“This is in addition to street and marginalised children and orphans who live in welfare centres registered with the Social Welfare Department,” he said while inaugurating the programme yesterday.

The management engagement session conducted by the Sabah National Registration Department identified eight students of citizens who had dropped out of the school system due to poverty, vulnerable families, with origins of illegal and undocumented births.

“They came to the Children’s Activity Centre under the supervision of the Sabah Social Welfare Department to learn about the basic concepts of 3Rs (reading, writing and arithmetic).

“The selection of SK Sembulan as a location to implement the SBJK programme is due to the justification of location, being in proximity to the homes of the eight students participating in the programme,” he added.

He said the SBJK SK Sembulan programme implements teaching and learning and co-curriculum just like SBJK modules according to the needs and suitability of students.

The first SBJK to operate was in Chow Kit which was implemented in 2013, accepting students from pre-school to secondary level involving children facing social problems, children without documents, dropouts and orphans.

- Bernama

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