Key Findings: Gaps and Challenges to Access Education Refugee and stateless children face many barriers to accessing education. The gaps and challenges they face are not solely related to access, but also on creating an enabling environment for them to access education. This section outlines the main existing gaps and challenges identified, causative factors and the impact on refugee and stateless children. This section also incorporates ways forward on possible integration and alternatives. a) LANGUAGE BARRIERS One significant challenge faced by refugee children across the globe when obtaining formal education is the language barrier. Many children come from diverse linguistic backgrounds, and they often find themselves in host countries where the official language or medium of instruction is different from their mother tongue. The linguistic divide poses numerous obstacles to their educational progress and hampers their integration into the national education system. Moreover, refugee children and some categories of stateless children only comprehend the national language sufficient for survival and do not possess a strong foundation in spoken, reading and written language56. Language is a factor that can promote or hinder the integration of refugee children into the national education system57. Without adequate language support and resources, refugee children may face long-term educational disadvantages and reduced advantages to be integrated into the formal education system. The same language-related barriers may not exist for in situ stateless children who have spent years in Malaysia. This can also apply to children who were born without identification cards or birth certificates58. Therefore, thorough data indicating the number of refugee and stateless children impacted by the language barrier is required to accurately determine the scale of the issue59. The language barrier impedes their ability to communicate, comprehend and develop essential literacy and language skills. b) FINANCIAL BARRIERS Refugee and stateless children face challenges in affording the necessary resources and expenditure associated with education, either by indirect or direct schooling costs60. Even though the government grants undocumented children with one Malaysian parent access to education, they must nevertheless pay RM120 (USD 26.25) for primary school and RM240 (USD 52.50) for secondary school each year in order to attend61. Additionally, they are not eligible for textbook aid programmes. Besides mandatory tuition fees, there are other educational expenses that refugee and stateless children struggle to afford, even in informal settings, such as alternative learning centres. These expenses include uniforms, textbooks, stationery and transportation costs62- the latter of which can be prohibitive, particularly if children live in remote areas or if there is limited public transportation available. Furthermore, the opportunities for education in places such as Sabah, Sarawak or areas in West Malaysia are limited and are out of reach for undocumented children63. Financial constraints may compel refugee households to place a higher priority on their school-aged children’s participation in paid labour than on their education in order to contribute to household income and cover basic living costs64. This is particularly the case in Malaysia, where refugee children are restricted from advancing their education in formal secondary or tertiary institutions. c) LIMITED FUNDING Besides financial constraints in households, the provision of education for refugee and stateless children in alterative learning centres are underfunded, which can limit the availability of quality education programs and resources. It is imperative that adequate funding be allocated to bridge this gap, providing these marginalised children with the educational support they need to rebuild their lives, and contribute to their host society, and to their home countries if and when they are able to return. Limited funding also contributes to a shortage of teachers as it is not sufficient to train and sustain fair wages for incoming educators65. Subsequently, this affects the quality of education negatively. As with other forms of humanitarian relief, funding for refugee education has historically been short-term, fragmented, unpredictable and allocated to specific projects outside national education systems66. To transition from parallel education services to including refugee children in the national education system, funding must shift from short-term humanitarian relief to long-term67, which could benefit both refugees and host countries in addition to potentially increasing the chances of getting accepted to third-country resettlement initiatives. On a similar note, most alternative learning centres, especially in Sabah and Sarawak, that host stateless children are underfunded, which impedes their ability to obtain a quality education68. Hence, it is imperative that the Malaysian government engages with the international community to augment the education budgets and facilitate the inclusion of stateless and refugee children in the national education system. Furthermore, secondary research suggests that intergovernmental agreements can be a solution to increase the capacity of existing learning centres to provide quality education for undocumented children in Malaysia. For example, in 2006, Malaysia signed a Government-to-Government (G2G) Agreement with Indonesia to ensure that children of Indonesian migrant workers, legal or otherwise, are provided access to education through Community Learning Centre (CLC) in plantations69. This intergovernmental agreement showed positive results, with an average of 235 students completing their studies every year with a total of 4,000 secondary school graduates to date. In addition, the Indonesian Consulate awards scholarships to excellent students to continue their tertiary education in Indonesia70. 69 United Nations Children's Fund Malaysia. (2019). Children Out of School: The Sabah Context. https://www.unicef.org/malaysia/media/921/file/Out%20of%20School%20children%20%20(OOSCI)%20Accessible%20version.pdf 70 ibid 56 Point was brought up by participants during breakout session at roundtable discussion Isu ini telah dibangkitkan oleh peserta semasa sesi berkumpulan dalam perbincangan meja bulat. 57 Cerna, L. (2019, May 13). REFUGEE EDUCATION: INTEGRATION MODELS AND PRACTICES IN OECD COUNTRIES. https://one.oecd.org/document/EDU/WKP(2019)11/En/pdfe 58 Being Malay, and stateless in Malaysia. (2022, March 22). MalaysiaNow. https://www.malaysianow.com/news/2022/03/23/being-malay-and-stateless-in-malaysia 59 Point brought up during breakout room sessions at roundtable discussion. Isu ini telah dibangkitkan oleh peserta semasa sesi berkumpulan dalam perbincangan meja bulat. 60 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (Ed.). (2019). Enforcing the right to education of refugees: a policy perspective. Working Papers on Education Policy. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000366839 61 https://www.theborneopost.com/2023/03/23/fadhlina-stateless-kids-with-one-parent-malaysian-certified-born-to-malaysian-can-attend-school/60 ibid 62 ibid 63 ibid 64 United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. (2015, July). SECONDARY EDUCATION FOR REFUGEE ADOLESCENTS. Education: Issue Brief 6. https://www.unhcr.org/media/33084 65 Point was brought up during breakout session at roundtable discussion Isu ini telah dibangkitkan oleh peserta semasa sesi berkumpulan dalam perbincangan meja bulat. 66 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. (2023). Submission by Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) on right to education. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/education/cfi-hrc53/submission-education-hrc53-unhcr-en.docx 67 ibid 68 United Nations Children's Fund Malaysia. (2019). Children Out of School: The Sabah Context. https://www.unicef.org/malaysia/media/921/file/Out%20of%20School%20children%20%20(OOSCI)%20Accessible%20version.pdf 10