Lawyer and activist Siti Kasim said she discovered this after analysing several medical reports.

She alleged that many children were fraudulently diagnosed as retarded despite being normal.

Siti said the signatures on the consent forms given by guardians for such medical reports were also forged, with all the forms having the same signature.

Siti accompanied the Jaringan Kampung Orang Asli Kelantan (JKOAK) in handing over a memorandum to the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) yesterday.

One of the demands is to not deny the right to education for these children.

“The doctors will have to mark off these medical reports. Whoever signed this so called certificates confirmed that the kids are handicapped.”

She said the actual label given in the forms was “mild retardation”.

Siti first heard of this case from a villager, Ahmadi Anak Lelaki Bayor, who was left bewildered when he found out his daughter, was diagnosed with mild retardation.

He claimed his signature was forged in a consent form for his daughter, Saffira, to be medically assessed by a hospital in Gua Musang.

Siti brought Saffira to Universiti Malaya for further assessment by a medical professional.

Saffira was instead diagnosed as having learning difficulties due to “environmental issues”.

“According to the UM child expert’s report, Saffira does not have intellectual disabilities. She does, however, have learning difficulties, such as issues with numeracy and literacy.

“But these are likely due to environmental issues such as the lack of academic stimulation.

“Clearly, this child is not retarded. This is only one example and we have many.”

She showed a bundle of such medical reports of different children but all having the same signature on the guardian consent form.

Students diagnosed with “mild retardation” are sent to a boarding school for special children in Gua Musang, almost two hours away from their home in Kuala Betis, she said.

“What are the teachers trying to do to these children? Just because you are lazy to teach and want to look after the school’s KPIs (key performance indicators), you do this to the future of these children? It is so appalling.

“Luckily, Ahmadi Jalil is more astute than the other parents.”

She said other parents in the village weren’t aware of this issue due to their laid-back lifestyle.

Ahmadi Jalil told reporters he wasn’t aware at all when Saffira was taken to the Gua Musang Hospital for medical assessment as he wasn’t at home at that time.

“When I came home, my door was left open and my daughter was nowhere to be found.”

He said he was only told by teachers that his daughter had been sent to a special learning school in Gua Musang.

JKOAK Secretary Mustafa Along said the rate of declining literacy among Orang Asli children was at a critical level.

“This happens when the teachers in the rural areas have no intention of doing their work.

“The teachers escape their responsibilities by classifying these kids as mentally disabled.”

Ahmadi Jalil hoped Suhakam and other NGOs highlight such problems faced by Orang Asli children to the proper authorities.