10/07/2005

singapore as an education hub

we are strategically located in a region with a 3 billion population, flanked in the north by northeast asia and vietnam, india in the northwest, indonesia in the south and our asean neighbours. being the most highly developed country and a very admirable education system, it is a right move to position ourselves as the primier education hub of the region. we have both the hardware and software to turn this into a reality. we capitalised on our infrastructure and an english language based education that made ourselves very attractive to the prospective students. over the last few years, enterprising businessmen have jumped onto the cue initiated by the govt and a whole list of public and private schools and their supportive businesses mushroomed overnight. we became an instant education hub. foreign students poured into our city and schools in search of academic excellence. the govt on its part has contributed tremendously in various way towards this same objective. just as we are about to reap the fruits of our labour, cracks started to appear. schools started to close down leaving students in the lurch, uncertain future and money lost. students were cheated by accommodation providers and placement agents. just as fast, we earned the nasty reputation of being unreliable, equivalent to third world countries. foreign students no longer feel safe to study here. all the parents become very wary of the singapore trademark. the damage has been done, and very severe, it has dealt a punishing blow to the education industry. it will take a long time to heal and to regain the sparkling image we used to be associated with. the culprits that done the harm were simply brushed aside, treated much much better than bus cheats. these people who cheated foreign students in the thousands are not threatened with jail sentences or punitive penalties. all these added up very unfavourably to our reputation. it is high time that the industry consolidate itself with more govt interference and self regulation to get back on its feet. yes, in this case govt interference is sorely needed to bring about some semblance of order and confidence among the schools, service providers and students. the question is, how could something so good gone so bad and so fast in this efficient city?

5 comments:

Elfred said...

Yo... Just drop by and say hi.

Hi.

Regards.

It's a good call for a good responsible and sensible publication and staying on discussion.

I support your call as such, though, hopefully you'd live up to your own call.

Take care.

chinesetycoon said...

Yo yo check it out! Also drop by to say hi. 加油 ! \(^0^)/


btw I am dumbell

Anonymous said...

Dumbell... when have you become a copy cat? :D

Hopefully, this ain't ending up another fs.net. Stick to the principle... we can't just have trash hijacking online publication industry.

Dumbell, if you can't help me maybe you can help Redbean.:)

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

thanks guys, for visiting. i hope this site can be slightly different in presentation and serves a different section of forumers' needs.

i appreciate your postings here.

thanks again.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

900 foreign students were affected by the closure of ait academy and unicampus at stamford road. only 140 were lucky to get a refund ranging from $200 to $14,000. this group benefitted from the new govt policy that required schools to deposit the school fees in a bank account.

but the damage has been done. even those getting a refund will be going elsewhere, giving singapore a skip. singapore is no longer seen as a safe and reliable place for tertiary education. the opinion of the 760 students who lost everything, though some were able to find alternative schools, were not reported. and it is better they keep silence about this.

so much effort and money wasted. many of the schools are folding up because business is so poor for lack of students. the students are not coming like they used to. probably they will go to malaysia which has no such bad publicity.