Almost 300,000 students in Malaysia registered as OKU this year, says Nancy
By BENJAMIN LEE
Nation
Tuesday, 03 Dec 2024
6:56 PM MYT

KUALA LUMPUR: The number of students registered as persons with disabilities (OKU) in Malaysia has reached almost 290,000 this year, says Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri.

Women, Family and Community Development Minister said at least 289,161 students with learning disabilities have registered from January to October 2024 so far which was a sizable increase over the previous 262,283 students that were registered in 2023.

She said this sizable increase in registrations was an encouraging sign of more parental awareness towards signs of their children’s disabilities.

“This increased awareness will be key to eliminating the stigma associated with children with disabilities but also further educating the people on their struggles.

“To ensure that this step has a positive impact, the government needs to develop a strong framework or guidelines to protect, support, and empower this group,” she said in a speech during the national-level OKU Day 2024 on Tuesday (Dec 3).

Despite this increase, Nancy acknowledged that the number of registered OKU people in the country was still relatively low and did not reflect the true number of OKUs currently in the country.

She said that this was due to most OKUs or their families not knowing how to register as an OKU or recognise their loved ones' disabilities due to being able to sustain themselves.

“Many OKUs either have no idea how to register as an OKU or even that they can do so because some of them are able to live relatively normal lives despite their disabilities.

“However, increasing the number of registered OKUs is important because the data will be used for the government's long-term development planning for the disability community.

"Additionally, children who are not registered as persons with disabilities will miss out on various benefits provided by the government for them,” she said in a press conference after the event.

She added that this was especially bad for OKU children as a lack of early intervention could result in a life of suffering for them in the long run as well as a potential loss for the country.

“As we have seen so many times before, many of these OKU children have the potential to become geniuses that will become the pride of our country whether it’d be as a lawyer, graduate in sciences or film producer,” she said.

She also revealed that there were now 740,844 registered OKU in Malaysia as of Oct 31 this year, comprising of 486,507 men and 254,337 women.

With this, Nancy announced that the Welfare Department (JKM) would collaborate with three local universities to develop new modules on how to care and nurture OKU children.

This includes Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) which will develop a generic OKU children care and nurturing module.

Meanwhile, Universiti Malaya (UM) and Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia (UIAM) will be in charge of developing modules on caring for OKU children with autism and those with down syndrome respectively.

“Through this, there will be more healthcare workers that are trained in caring for OKU students.

“This will ensure that the specific needs of OKU children are met so that they are not left behind in the mainstream world,” she said.

Nancy also revealed that the government had yet to fill its 1% quota of public sector positions for OKU as of this year.

She attributed this due to a number of factors including some older government buildings not being able to accommodate the needs of OKU staff and a lack of incentive for OKUs to join the public sector.

Source: https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2024...year-says-nancy

So many assburgers

boleh tolong share 2018 and 2019 stats pls..

need to spike heavy metals into body

Speech delay consider OKU?
Coz I know now trending anak 1.5 years old cannot talk send to therapist, parents gelabah tak tentu pasal.

Like my big sis daughter….
Late to learn speak..
Want send to kindy…
The kindy headmistress say the daughter brain got problem…
Tell my sis send to check eye problem specialist…..
My whole family say bullshit…..
Now big already….
Keep talk back with plenty of excuse like our politikus…..
That kindy headmistress can to saupei…..

You would be suprised how many people are actually OKU

They either don't know they are OKU

Don't want to admit they are OKU/Don't want the embarrassment of having Red Card

Don't have Doctor Notes yet to fill form at Jabatan Kebajikan for OKU status

OKU cover wide arrays such as Mental, Speech, Coordination, etc etc.

I know one of my FWB become OKU after being diagnosed with anxiety for 5 years consecutively

My ex-coworker due to her speech impairment

and an acquantaince for being born with 4 fingers on right hand.

True
Even when go yearly/monthly check up with Doc, after 18 months if baby cannot talk they will recommend parents to bring the baby to speech delay therapist.
Charge insurance to the max for each session ... down the line after few months/year the baby can talk, they claim they do the job well. I say bulls**t because thats memang how God create us.

Parents nowadays have the 'Fear of left out' syndrome. Other kid got OKU card, they mati2 will find way to tag their kid with OKU card no matter for what reason so can upload it in social media. Sick parents...

Not surprised especially when awareness is still very low among people because everything can be solved by some magical forces

Shud open registration here at lyn also

if students alone already have 300k OKU

i cannot imagine how many OKU there are in malaysia right now

Out of 289,161 OKUs, only 1 flaunts his OKU card like a 1st Edition Rare Holo Charizard

let's face it, everybody wants to be treated as normal people
plus, it's not like our country and facilities are OKU friendly anyway

Yes the number keep on rising as there are more awareness, but OKU card can be revoked if not mistaken.

Most likely related to learning disabilities like most /ktards.

Ktards here also got many OKU. Mental OKU.

So many gila people here

Yeah,. eldest normally introvert towards strangers. Easily misdiagnosed..deswai in the buku anak (blue/pink) there's monitoring signs for parents to observe as children will behave differently toward parents and strangers.

Is 2 inci considered OKJ?

semua nak hak istimewa je...
got a problem, slap a title call it oku...bcm society problem, not the kongkek person

Not OKU but sign of Intelligence and cultural distinction..