From :

Representatives Of Indian Expatriates Living in Malaysia

To :

High Commission of India, Level 28, Menara 1 Mon't Kiara,

No.1, Jalan Mon't Kiara, 50480, Kuala Lumpur.

Date :- 6th March 2016

Dear Honourable High Commissioner,

Ref : The Plight Of Indian Expatriates’ Children's Education In Malaysia

As you are already aware, we would like to bring to your kind attention that currently we have a sizeable Indian expat population currently working and living in the capital city of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. This expat population keeps growing year by year in tandem with the growth of Malaysian economy, however currently this entire Indian expat population is facing a serious problem which needs urgent attention and redressal for the sake of these families.

The pressing issue at present is, there are only 2 Indian schools available in this city for all the children of these Indian families. Knowing this scarcity of supply and the overwhelming demand, the rates of school fees keep increasing exorbitantly year by year without any valid justifications. Since there are only 2 options available to all families here, we are just trapped to only pay what the school fees are just to ensure Indian education to our kids. Although there are other international schools with non-Indian syllabus in this city, these are either even more expensive or not suitable for the Indian families who have plans to return to India, in which case their kids will lose the continuity of the Indian education. For these reasons almost all of the Indian families living here are just stuck with either of these 2 schools.

While we completely understand that it is the prerogative of the schools to set the school fees based on the market demand and supply, we also would like to set the industry equilibrium balanced to favour the consumers by increasing the supply side. In this way we believe we can achieve a win-win situation to both the service providers and the consumers, in terms of quality of education and also the price of it.

As such we would like to seek your kind assistance to invite the Indian school establishments in India to seriously consider opening their school branches in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in the near future. We believe by establishing more Indian schools here in Kuala lumpur, a fair market competition can be created which will ensure the cost of education is brought down and at the sametime the quality of education is increased to remain relevant in the competition.

It is very crucial to resolve this long standing problem of the Indian diaspora here because as per the information published in the following Wikipedia article, India is receiving 70 Billion US dollars each year in remittances from the Indian diaspora and in the same article the remittances from Malaysia alone is standing at US$493 Million and growing.

Source :- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remittances_to_India#Remittance_Source_Countries

If this education issue is not solved, many Indian families will plan to leave Malaysia and return to India. As such it is in the interest of Indian economy to resolve this issue for them, to continue to earn the foreign remittance for good.

Needless to say, it is also important for the Malaysian government as well to resolve this education dilemma because the entire IT industry in Malaysia is strongly supported by the Indian IT expatriates. If these expatriates find working in Malaysia is not lucrative anymore due to the high fees they have to pay for their children's education, the IT industry here will suffer an adverse impact and the nation will lose talented IT experts to other greener pastures. Such expatriation of talents are already happening in the IT field and this must be taken note by the Malaysian government before it becomes too late.

Therefore, we urge both the governments to treat this petition as an eye opener to understand the demand for Indian education in Malaysia and take a corrective action in this regard. It is also imperative to educate the Indian schools establishments in India to get a feel of the investments required to setup their school branches here. The land prices here are one of the lowest in Asia and the cost of doing business is also very encouraging. The Malaysian government is always open to foreign educational institutions to setup their bases here be it universities or schools. If good quality of education is provided with a reasonable price, the other nationalities and Malaysian local communities will also consider sending their kids to these Indian schools. The Chinese, Malaysian local Indians and even Koreans who are already studying in the existing Indian schools are a testament for the appetite for Indian quality education here. Hence please also take notice of the market potential from the non-Indians here. The key factor to also woo the non-Indians is to provide quality education as much as possible.

Furthermore, in order to show the proof of support for more Indian schools in Malaysia, we have gathered and attached (refer to appendix A) as many signatures as possible from Indian families who are seriously looking forward to an alternative Indian school in Malaysia. However, as you know since we can’t reach all of them, this is just the tip of the iceberg for demand and therefore the real size of the demand is even greater.

We are looking forward to your kind attention on this matter.

P.S. We invite all Indian expatriates living in Malaysia to kindly support this cause by signing this petition and also share this petition to other Indian colleagues to get enough support. No petition can bring a change until and unless it has the support from the people. However we plead to all not to offend other schools in this petition, because that is not our intention. This good cause is to encourage more Indian schools in Malaysia to create more competition to increase the quality of education and make it affordable to all.

"A long march starts with a single step" - Mao

"Better to light a candle than curse the darkness" - Eleanor Roosevelt

The following will be our action plans :-

Action Plans

1) To get this petitioned signed by at least 1000 supporters.

2) To send the petition to the following authorities :-

2.1) Indian high commission in Malaysia

2.2) Indian foreign affairs ministry

2.3) Indian prime minister's office

2.4) Malaysian education ministry

2.5) Malaysian human resource ministry

2.6) Reputed Indian schools establishments in India to show the demand for an alternative Indian school option in Malaysia

2.7) Malaysian prime minister's office

Latest Updates

24th June 2016

Based on this petition, the Indian high commission in Malaysia, has requested us to prepare a proposal to invite Kendriya Vidyalaya from India to set up their school branch in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. As such the following proposal has been prepared and submitted to the High commission :-

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-7CQZFNr2DRR012bjQxRkJfMmc