PETALING JAYA: After theSun highlighted the issue of an eight-year-old schoolgirl who suffers from cerebral palsy having to be carried by her mother to class, more people have raised similar cases, claiming to be victims of poor administration.
Wan Mohd Fakhrul Anwar Abu Bakar, 36, from Pasir Mas in Kelantan shared a video of him being turned away at the National Registration Department because his disabled mother was unable to go to its counter. His mother, Remalah Shafien, 72, is bedridden due to a stroke more than 10 years ago.
The former school teacher said he had once taken his mother to her bank and the staff there agreed to help Remalah complete the transactions from the car.
“However, there were problems with her MyKad chip, so we were asked to renew her MyKad. I immediately drove to the National Registration Department office but was turned away and told I had to wait for approval for Mobile Ehsan, which is a service to help those unable to go to their counters,” he told theSun.
“It is difficult to take my mother to its office because she is bedridden and cannot sit up straight to be put on a wheelchair. The department staff also said it might take months to process my application for the Mobile Ehsan service.”
Calls to the department in Kota Baru and Pasir Mas in Kelantan went unanswered.
Meanwhile, a teacher in Klang claims her colleague, who suffers from a slipped disc, was forced to walk up the stairs to the fifth floor of their school building because the school administration refused to allow her to move her classroom to the ground floor.
“When I read what happened to the cerebral palsy student, I immediately called my friend and we knew this situation would not change unless we complained to the newspapers,” she said.
According to the teacher, who wished to be known only as Sarah, if the headmistress at her school knew they tried to report the matter, they would be issued a show-cause letter.
“We have tried going to the Klang district education office, but it backfired on us as we were threatened with disciplinary action, increase in workload, and told our leave applications would also be denied,” she said.
Discrimination or apathy towards those with disabilities are more rampant than previously thought. But most cases have gone unreported for fear of retaliation by administrators.
In the case reported by theSun last week, teachers had tried to help Adreena Scha Azrul Shah by carrying her downstairs so she could join her Physical Education classes or at least watch her classmates play. Her mother carries her to the classroom on the first floor every morning.
However, the school administration was adamant about not allowing her classroom to be moved to the ground floor until the matter was highlighted and the Kuala Selangor District Education director took immediate action to rectify the situation.