The parents of missing Orang Asli children in Gua Musang have reportedly been urged to approach the Ministry of Education regarding their complaints about the purported expulsion letter issued to them.

Deputy Education Minister P Kamalanathan reportedly told The Star’ s education section StarEducate that the letter may been fake, they need to show the letter to the ministry for action to be taken.

“Based on my checks with the ministry, there was no such letter issued,” he was quoted as saying.

The seven children have gone missing from the SK Tohoi boarding school since Aug 23, and a search and rescue operation involving almost 300 persons from various agencies is still ongoing.

On Friday however, theSun reported that the students’ parents have received a letter from the school warning that the children must return to school in 31 days or face expulsion.

Public outcry

Copies of the purported letter were also uploaded on social media, sparking public outcry.

"This is an outrage. Our children went missing from the school and now we get this?” said the mother of two of the missing children, Midah Angah, according to theSun .

"How can we bring back our children when they got lost on school grounds and we don't know where they are?

"Everyone knows the kids are missing. How can the school authorities send such a letter to us knowing fully well that there is a search party out there looking for them,” she reported said in response to the letter dated Sept 2.

Meanwhile, Kamalanathan reportedly told StarEducate that the Education Minister Mahdzhir Khalid had visited the school on Thursday, but no one approached him or mentioned about the letter.

He added that it would be wise to check validity of reports circulating online before drawing conclusions, as it may be unfounded.

Earlier today, Malaysiakini had also contacted the Gua Musang district education office for comment about the alleged letters, but was told that neither the district education officer nor his deputy were available for comment.