PLOS ONE Undocumented: An examination of legal identity and education provision for children in Malaysia “I feel like parents are sending children to religious education because they can’t afford the children to be at home. In religious school, the Tahfiz school is feeding the children. So, they have this mindset of thinking, ‘Okay! My child can’t go to normal school because I can’t afford it and it is not accessible, whether it’s far, or it is another ethnic community’s school or something. But at least they can have religious education. So, when I die, he will read Quran for me.’ Even if you need to pay, it is only a one-time payment per year.” FS-01 Refugees’ access to public education. We found that there have been instances in the past where refugee children had entered public schools. Policy changes since the 1990s (See Fig 3) have meant that more stringent entry requirements, together with the recent advances in digitalisation of school registrations, have made it near impossible for refugees and asylum-seekers to enter public schools. “In the past, the headmaster had discretionary power. But because now everything is online, if the document is not complete, the system would automatically reject. Now the Headmaster does not have any power. He only accepts what is given by the District PPD [District Education Office]. If those children have problems [with school registration], they must go to the PPD, or even to the JPN [State Education Department] to register and to apply. It is very rigid.” RES-07 (translated from Bahasa Malaysia) We interviewed several refugees who experienced education at public primary schools. Non-citizen children pay higher school fees, are not eligible for the free textbooks program and are unable to sit for school-leaving examinations. Yet, students may otherwise participate in lessons with Malaysian children, gain local language skills and experience a more structured, higher quality education compared to that offered at community-run learning centres. However, experiences at public schools were mixed. Some interviewees shared experiences of bullying and being unable to fit in at public schools. Undocumented children in Sabah. Alternative education in the form of learning centres has emerged to serve the educational needs of the disadvantaged children in Sabah. These learning centres are supported by NGOs, faith-based organisations, local communities, government agencies (National Security Council, the Malaysian Armed Forces, and others), employers’ groups (oil palm plantations), and foreign embassies (Indonesian or Philippines embassies). Overall, learning centres in Sabah may be classified as either located within or outside of palm oil plantation estates. The most organised and vigorous initiatives for alternative education appeared to be for the children of Indonesian migrant workers, largely served through the learning centres in estates. Learning centres outside estates are primarily managed by NGOs or local communities in urban areas and have fewer resources. Education providers informed that urban learning centres face harassment and repeated closure by the state government, as they can’t meet the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) criteria for schools. “We have enormous problems with the local education department. The reason is that they regard all learning centres, and there are now several 100 learning centres that are independent of the [Indonesian] consulate, that are just citizens setting up learning centres. . . They regard them as illegal, as they do not adhere to the law that is set out by MOE. Okay, I have been summoned to the Education Department for this purpose too! And I have had schools shut down by the local education authorities! Last year, I had one school being shut down three times.” EP-04 PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263404 February 2, 2022 16 / 26