87 percent of Malaysian-Indian kids experience racial discrimination in schools

 Just how bad is discrimination in Malaysian schools?

According to a study conducted by two youth movements set up to address identity-based discrimination in Malaysia's education system, one in every two children faces some form of discrimination in schools.

Sekolah Semua and Architects of Diversity, through its nationwide study titled 'Discrimination in Education' surveyed 2,441 respondents.

What does discrimination mean?

Before we dive into the nitty gritty details of their findings, let's learn what their definition of discrimination is.

Any unequal treatment, exclusion, lack of access, preference, or harassment done based on a person's identity is defined as discriminatory according to both organizations.

Yes, this includes race, religion, skin color, belief, gender, language, geography, socioeconomic status, physical disability, mental disability, and sexual orientation.

What did the survey unearth?

Out of the total sum of respondents, 36 percent of children revealed that they have experienced verbal discrimination.

21 percent have experienced harassment, ostracism, or some form of bullying.

18 percent revealed that they were even denied access to opportunities because of their identities.

Malaysian Indian children get discriminated more.

Malaysian Indian children, 87 percent of them, experience the most in terms of race-based discrimination in schools compared to other races.

They also suffer from the highest rate of verbal discrimination (54 percent).

40 percent of them revealed that they were denied access to opportunities because of their racial background.

Are Malaysian kids aware of what discrimination is?

Part of the survey's questionnaire hoped to learn if kids know what discrimination is.a

So they were asked if they had reported perceived discrimination incidences to the authorities.

This is where it gets troubling. A majority 54 percent of respondents said they didn't report such incidences to their parents, teachers, school administration, or the police.

61 percent believed that reporting wouldn't have made a difference.

The 48 percent who did report revealed that no investigations or action was taken to address the discrimination they faced.

Both Sekolah Semua and Architects of Diversity said further research needs to be done to better understand discrimination in Malaysian schools due to the current survey's retrospective nature and limitations.

"Anecdotally, many of us know of Malaysians that have faced negative and harmful experiences in schools because of their race, gender, and other identities," Jason Wee, the co-founder of Architects of Diversity said.

"With the results of this survey, we hope that Malaysia as a country can start to better confront our discrimination problem."