Trust private schools here?

THE spate of private school scandals has laid bare the inadequacies of minimum standards imposed on private schools here.

Tipped off by complaints, Straits Times checks earlier this year on the list of 327 Case- accredited private schools here uncovered over a dozen with shockingly low standards for their courses, teaching staff and facilities.

The worst were Camford Business School and Boston International, which offered worthless degrees from unaccredited universities such as the Paramount University of Technology, a degree mill based in Wyoming, United States, and a 'West Coast University' accredited by an agency in the South Pacific islands of Wallis and Futuna.

Straits Times checks recently unearthed even more schools offering courses from unaccredited institutions. The Centre for Professional Studies came under fire for offering unaccredited Preston University master's degrees and doctorates to students here over the last four years.

Shines College was also found to have enrolled hundreds of students in degree courses offered by European University, found to have only private school registration in Switzerland, and the University of Northern Virginia, which has lost its accreditation since Aug 6.

What is surprising is that all these schools had sailed through two rounds of checks - first to register as private schools with the Education Ministry (MOE) and second to win the CaseTrust for Education award given out here.

So it is understandable that affected students are now pointing an accusing finger at MOE's private school licensing scheme and the CaseTrust for Education scheme for failing to protect their interests.

However, the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case), which administers CaseTrust, has shrugged off complaints, saying that its scheme was only meant to safeguard student fees in the event of a school going under, not to vouch for the quality of the programmes.

MOE explanations, too, share a similar refrain. The ministry has said repeatedly that registration by MOE does not in any way 'represent an endorsement or accreditation of the quality of programmes'.

Yet, to register, MOE requires the over 1,200 private schools here to have appropriate facilities, qualified teachers and if they are offering courses from overseas universities, then the institutions must be 'bona fide' and the courses approved by MOE.

To date, unfortunately, it has not made clear what it considers a 'bona fide university'. For most people, that would mean an institution with academic accreditation which is subject to quality checks on its courses, teachers and facilities, not just a legal entity that mints degrees.

This raises the question: How did these rogue players uncovered by The Straits Times pass scrutiny?

Rudimentary checks with embassies here and accreditation bodies like the Council for Higher Education Accreditation in the United States would have revealed that the likes of Paramount University of Technology lack proper accreditation.

In the case of Preston University, MOE said the Centre for Professional Studies, which offered the programme, had submitted the university's accreditation in Pakistan. Alarm bells should have gone off, as in the US, the school is listed by state government agencies as a 'degree supplier' offering 'fraudulent or sub-standard degrees'. It had also been found out for inventing more than half of its faculty list.

Although there is an accredited university going by the same name as West Coast University, all it took was a few more clicks on Google to find out that its accreditation was by an agency in the South Pacific islands.

And what about the two insurance agents' associations that ran MBA programmes from the unaccredited International University (IU), Vienna? The same programme had been previously offered by another unaccredited institution, Vancouver University Worldwide, before being transferred to IU, Vienna.

One of the associations argued that as the course is offered only to its association members, there is no need for it to seek MOE approval for the course. Should this be allowed?

If so, then why the need for private schools to seek approval for their courses?

All these gaps must be closed in the new, stricter Edutrust Scheme that the Government will introduce next year to ensure that the private education sector meets baseline quality standards.

The Government had announced that regulation of private schools will from next year come under MOE. A new independent council will decide on applications for registration and certification, as well as the actions to be taken against errant schools.

The new law will also give the MOE sharper teeth when it comes to punishing rogue private schools. Currently, a school can only be de-registered, and that too under extreme circumstances.

The new rules must be rigorous enough to force private operators to offer only quality courses from properly accredited institutions. If not, Singapore's ambitions to become a quality education hub will be affected.

Last year, Singapore celebrated passing the halfway mark in its quest to become a Global Schoolhouse with 150,000 international students by 2015. The 86,000 foreign students here hail from more than 120 nations, and carry the hopes and dreams of their families, many of whom scrimped and saved to send them here.

A disappointed Indian student from Shines College said: 'I thought of going to Malaysia because it will be easier on my parents, but in the end decided on Singapore. We thought the Government here is strict and will ensure that schools here are top-quality. Now I may have lost all my parents' hard-earned savings.'

Singapore is not the only one in this heated worldwide race for the foreign student dollar. The authorities often say that Singapore's education hub aspirations enjoy an edge over its regional competitors such as Malaysia and Thailand because of its higher quality benchmarks.

Enough of empty boasts. It is time to ensure that private institutions here live up to that quality promise.

Straits Times