PLOS ONE Undocumented: An examination of legal identity and education provision for children in Malaysia Table 2. Types of education access for undocumented and non-citizen children in Malaysia. Types of Education Categories of non-citizens children in Malaysia Formal Education Public School Overall Malaysia Stateless and undocumented with one Malaysian as parent or guardian Informal Education Learning Centre1 Private School International school2 Expatriate school3 Malaysian Governmentsupported 4,5 p Peninsular Malaysia Islamic religious school (Madrasah or Tahfiz)9 p p p p p p p p p p p p p 7 Indonesian Philippines p Subcategories in Sabah Filipinos p Indonesian Local people in the interior10 NGO or Community operated8 6 p Refugee and asylum seekers Bajau Laut Embassy supported p p p 1 Learning centres are an alternative pathway for children lacking the necessary identity documentation to gain access to formal education at public schools. 2 Private international schools are only accessible to those with the financial means to pay the school fees. Valid passports and visas are required for admission to international schools. 3 Expatriate schools are formal schools established under the auspices of an embassy. Examples of expatriate schools are the Sekolah Indonesia Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bharu and Kota Kinabalu, which informally accept children of migrant workers. 4 Sekolah Bimbingan Jalinan Kasih (SBJK) is an alternative education programme under the Ministry of Education, Malaysia that caters to abandoned and street children in Malaysia. 5 The National Security Council (NSC) of Malaysia, in collaboration with UNICEF and other organisations, provides alternative education for undocumented children in Sabah. As of June 2015, there were 12 NSC run learning centres in operation. 6 Malaysia and Indonesia signed a Government to Government (G2G) Agreement in 2006 to ensure that children of Indonesian migrant workers have access to education. The Indonesian government sends in qualified Indonesian teachers to teach in learning centres in Sabah and Sarawak. 7 In 2014, six learning centres in Sabah signed a Memorandum of Understanding on a community-based education program with the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO), the Department of Education (DepEd), and the Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. 8 Refugee or asylum-seekers access informal education through learning centres, either partnered with UNHCR or entirely community-based. As of March 2020, there are 126 learning centres recognised by UNHCR in Peninsular Malaysia. 9 Islamic religious schools in Malaysia, also known as Maahad Tahfiz. 10 Many indigenous children are unable to attend school because of distance, lack of documentation, or language barriers. Sourced from [3,21]. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263404.t002 Our interviewees based in Sabah concurred that the policy has less relevance in their context, where many undocumented children do not meet the eligibility criteria linked to parents’ Malaysian citizenship. Sekolah Bimbingan Jalinan Kasih. For homeless or abandoned street children with incomplete documents and some claim to Malaysian citizenship (at least one Malaysian parent), the Ministry of Education opened a dedicated public school, Sekolah Bimbingan Jalinan Kasih (SBJK) located in Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur, with plans to expand this school model to several other states [77]. The SBJK serves children aged 5 to 17 years old, who are mainly street children living near its location in central Kuala Lumpur, marginalised due to poverty and other social problems and who are unable to enter mainstream public schools due to the lack of identity documents. Interviewees informed that while the school aims to give undocumented children a basic education to improve their job prospects, their lack of documentation does not allow them to pursue tertiary education or formal employment. PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263404 February 2, 2022 13 / 26