PETALING JAYA: Dong Zong president Tan Tai Kim said a total of 694 foreign students are currently studying at 63 independent Chinese secondary schools in the country.

He told Sin Chew Daily these foreign students are classified under three different categories:

■ Their fathers are Malaysians while their mothers are foreigners.
■ Their fathers are Chinese nationals investing in Malaysia.
■ Foreign students previously studying at Chinese primary schools or other schools here.

Tan said the parents of foreign students studying at independent Chinese secondary schools here must be work permit holders in Malaysia, or participants of Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) program or others.

He also said government rules on the admission of foreign students have been changing over the years with a lot of conditions attached, while there are no standard procedures for different states.

Generally, the school authorities will first get the support letter from the state education department before applying for a student visa with the immigration department. However, the sequence is reversed in some states.

Most of the foreign students at the country’s independent Chinese secondary schools are from China, Taiwan and Myanmar.