Thursday, July 18, 2013

Registering Shern For Primary School

In Malaysia, a child starts formal primary education at age 7. For primary school registration , some people say that you need to register when your child is 4 years old. Some say 5 years old, and others say 6 years old.

Read online that for Selangor residents, you can do web online registration. But what about for Penang?

Other parents tell me that the education department will publish an article/calling in the Chinese newspapers when it is time for registration. But I don't can't read the Chinese newspaper, and I don't ever remember seeing such calling in the English newspapers. There is no definite guidelines, and so I decided to take matters in my own hands!

I would just go to the preferred school and find out when and how to register. And if I get lucky, they might just allow me to register there and then!

I decided to register Shern to a Chinese primary school. In Malaysia, we call them SJK (C) which stands for Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (Cina).
Yes, both hubby & me can't read chinese. But hearing how lousy the Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) schools are getting now, we really don't have a choice.

So along with a friend of mine, we marched to the school to register for both our sons.
Both my friend and I can't read Chinese, and it felt good to go together rather than alone.

We brought along everything we could think of; originals and photocopies; I.Cs, Birth Certs, Marriage Certs, etc.

But in the end, these are what we submitted to them: (note: I'm not sure if this applies to all schools!)
  • Child's Original Birth Certificate, and a photocopy
  • Child's photocopy of MyKid. 
  • Both parent's photocopy of MyKad.
  • Latest Utility Bill (with address near to school)
  • A Signed Letter (if utility bill is not your name)

After that we were required to fill in a form, with the child's details and also the parents details, together with correspondence add and tel.
Please make sure you know how to fill in your child's name in Chinese as there is a column for it! :)

They needed the child's Original Birth Certificate, because the school would stamp this behind:



After that, it was done. Fast and easy. It took us about half an hour.

Yes, you can only register for ONE school.
And you would not know whether your submission is accepted in this school or not, until just a few months before your child is required to report to school.
So for our case, Shern will be attending Primary/Standard 1 in 2016. So we would get a letter from the school/education ministry in around August 2015.

I heard that your chances will be higher if the address you submitted is nearer to the school, though there is no guarantee.
And the admin told us if my son could not get in our preferred school, we could appeal.

Anyway, one thing strike off my to-do list. I'm feeling good.
Is not easy being a mum.

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