KUANTAN: Six siblings, who are the children of a former Global Ikhwan Services and Business Holdings (GISB) member, will attend formal lessons at two secondary schools for the first time in their lives next month.
The four boys and two girls aged between 13 and 17, had all these years attended lessons at a madrasah (religious school) owned by GISB before they were detained and handed over to the Welfare Department last month.
Pahang Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (Muip) deputy chief executive officer (Baitulmal and Operations) Dr Asmadi Abdul Rahman said the council has taken the six siblings under their wing to ensure they receive mainstream education.
"All the children have birth certificates along with other necessary documents which will allow them to enrol in government schools with the assistance from the Pahang Education department. Four of them will be attending a secondary school in Pekan while two others will go to a religious secondary school (Sekolah Menengah Agama).
"They have never attended any formal education and based on the screening conducted by Muip, they have only acquired basic skills in reading, writing, and arithmetic (3R). They are currently attending tuition classes to prepare for secondary school.
"In fact, one of them is already 17 years old and is supposed to be in Form Five, but will attend Four Four classes and make the necessary preparations to sit for Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia. We will give the children enough time to cope with lessons and not put them under any pressure."
Asmadi was speaking to reporters after Muip took the children to purchase school supplies at a supermarket here yesterday.
Meanwhile, he said based on the screening conducted by Muip, the six children are obedient, hard working and were looking forward to beginning their school life.
"All this while, the siblings along with the other children of GISB members attended lessons at a madrasah and they were never exposed to the outside world. They only mixed with the same group of children at the madrasah.
"We realised that the children of GISB members who are currently under our care do not even know the existence of social media platforms or are exposed to mobile phones. Some seem fascinated with certain types of biscuits....they seem to have been in their own world all these years," he said, adding the six siblings were born to a GISB member who had three wives and 27 children.
Muip sponsored the school uniforms, shoes, bags and other essentials to prepare the six children for school next month.
Last month, Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek, said the ministry will take over the education needs of children who were previously under GISB's care.