KUALA LUMPUR, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Children's Fund(UNICEF) and Malaysia's Bar Council held a forum titled "Education for Every Child" here on Friday as it celebrated the 20 years of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

    Issues on education in Malaysia were widely deliberated in the two forum sessions and the working group discussions.

    UNICEF representative to Malaysia Youssouf Oomar told reporters here on Friday, after the opening ceremony of the forum, that ensuring access to education alone was not sufficient as the Malaysian government must also provide quality education.

    Youssouf said that the authorities should always review the education policies and find solutions to those that did not work.

    Stressing that access to education was one of the children's rights enshrined in the CRC, Youssouf called for relevant authorities in Malaysia to work hand-in-hand to better serve the children in Malaysia.

    He said that UNICEF noticed that three to four percent of Malaysian children were not attending schools and the reasons behind could be they were indigenous people living under the poverty line or having no proper identity certificates.

    Complimenting Malaysia for bringing down children mortality rate in the last decade, Youssouf reminded that it did not mean that the CRC had achieved its goals as it only laid the foundation for those responsible parties to do their parts.

    Youssouf also expressed the UNICEF's commitment to extend aids to the non-governmental organizations in Malaysia to support and reinforce their capacity to better serve the children.

    Meanwhile, the Malaysian Bar Council's President Ragunath Kesavan urged the Malaysian government to narrow the gap between urban and rural education.

    Ragunath said that while urban schools were equipped with proper infrastructure including internet connection, rural schools might find themselves lacking basic amenities.

    The Malaysian Education Ministry must look into logistics, transportation and infrastructure problem at rural schools as having to travel for hours from home to schools was not something proper, added Ragunath.

    "The CRC acknowledges the basic rights of the child to develop their full potential. These rights should be enjoyed by all children and not just the privilege few," said Ragunath.

    On the other note, Ragunath said that the CRC was signed for all children instead of Malaysians alone.

    Therefore, he stressed that should refugees in Malaysia come forward to file a complaint for their rights to education being deprived, the Malaysian Bar Council was ready to bring the test case to court.

    Under Malaysia's Education Act 1996, only children in certain categories are eligible for enrolment in Malaysian schools.

    This includes a child of a foreign embassy's staff, a child whose parents are non-citizens but working in government service and a child selected by his government to pursue his studies in Malaysia may be admitted to a school in Malaysia.

    Malaysia ratified the CRC in 1995 when Mahathir Mohamad was still the Prime Minister. Mahathir's wife Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali was invited to launch the forum on Friday.

    In her keynote address, Siti Hasmah said Malaysia had been attending well to children basic needs, including providing near-universal primary school enrollment.

    This had resulted in high levels of literacy in the country, added Siti Hasmah.

    She also showed her concern about the 500,000 children living in war zones who remained in the shadows of disparities and discrimination instead of being in schools.

    Earlier, the "State of the World's Children Report -- Special Edition Report on Child Rights" was launched here before the forum opened.