It’s 2026, poverty shouldn’t still be keeping children from school

IT is deeply unsettling that in the second week of the 2026 school year, Malaysian children are already missing out on education – not because schools are unavailable, but because poverty still decides who gets to learn and who does not.

The Sri Murugan Centre and the Social Welfare Department are working to keep a Year Five student from dropping out – not due to lack of ability, discipline, or motivation but because her family is struggling to survive.

Let us be clear, this is not an isolated case. It is a symptom of a deeper, systemic failure.

Every year, as schools reopen and policymakers speak of reforms, assessments, digital classrooms, and future-ready education, there are children who quietly disappear from the system. No press statements. No public outrage. Just empty desks. Their absence is often explained away as “family issues” or “documentation problems”. But the truth is far more uncomfortable and far more basic: Poverty.

And here is the reality we rarely confront honestly: Systems move slowly, while children’s lives move on. Forms take time. Approvals take time. Processes take time. But hunger does not wait. Fear does not wait. A child’s confidence, dignity, and sense of belonging do not wait.

Why, in 2026, are Malaysian children still being denied education because of poverty?

Our education system is designed to be inclusive. Agencies exist to protect the vulnerable. Policies are written with good intentions. Yet the gap between policies and lived reality remains wide. The problem is not the absence of aid but the access to it. Awareness exists, but timely intervention often does not.

Education is not merely a pathway out of poverty. It is the most powerful tool we can give a child to break the cycle entirely. Take it away even temporarily and the consequences can echo across a lifetime: lost confidence, lost opportunities, and lost hope.

If we truly believe education is a right and not a privilege, then silence is no longer an option. The school year has just begun. No child should already be left behind. Let us act together. One child. One family. One intervention at a time. Because, as Nelson Mandela so powerfully reminded the world, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.

And no child should ever be denied that weapon.

MANGALAGOWRI RAMANATHAN

Petaling Jaya