12/05/2014

An education centre or snake oil selling centre


We promote our City as a regional education centre. We allow all kinds of schools and universities to set up shops here to teach and to issue certificates, diplomas and degrees. Is there a need for quality checks? Or it is caveat emptor, the schools and their operators do whatever they want, the students go and do whatever they want, the Govt has no responsibility to the quality of the education services provided, the Govt may not even recognized their certificates or degrees issued?
 

In the banking industry there is some minimum guarantees for the deposits, at one time by the Govt. In the stock market, many investors are complaining about fly by night operators, companies listed in the market but turned turtles within months or a couple of years and then closed shop. Many got delisted for fraudulent accounting and businesses. Who is responsible for this? Caveat emptor?
 

The big question, shall there be some standard or criteria be set so that unwary students who honestly come here to get an education did not get snake oil instead? Would anyone be responsible or is it fair to the students and their parents for putting out good money, honestly, believing in the Singapore brand, to give their children an education but the certificates and degrees were not recognized at the end of the day? When there is no accountability or responsibility, anything can happen. Is this the nature of things that we want just to do business and collect some fees?

As a Govt and a country promoting education, can anything go, got quality or no quality, recognized or not recognized, does not matter as long as they can run it as a business and there are people, students, willing to register and to pay for it? Willing buyer and willing seller good enough?  Can this same principle be applied to other products and services? Can anyone import or produce and sell food products freely, with no questions on the standards and quality of the food? Or can anyone bring in cars that are not safe or did not meet engineering and design standards or quality to sell here?
 

Our education scene is like the Wild Wild West, like our infamous shopping centres. Buyers beware! No one is responsible for fakes, frauds and snake oils?
 

As a regional education centre, does the Govt think that it has no duty to ensure that the products and services are of certain quality and standard, or at least they are recognized by the government as employers? Singapore has a reputation for quality and reliability. The Singapore brand? How would the consumers think if the money they paid expecting quality education turns out to be something else?
 

Can a Singaporean student attending a private university here expect that the degree be recognized by the govt when applying for a job? This is the least that can be expected. Is the education scene too cavalier? 

Where is this thing called moral obligation or responsibility? What is ethical consideration?

Kopi Level - Green

11 comments:


  1. Bad! Bad! Bad!

    Just like you, I also feel very
    sorry for students and graduates
    of "not-so-recognized" colleges
    and universities operating in
    Singapore.

    This is bad bad bad!

    Why like that lah!?

    One old uncle once told me......
    the best way to govern a country
    on auto cruise control is to let
    the country be "Boh Cheng Hu".

    Cheers.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The island of Fu Man Chu
    - Home to an ancient 90 year old evil that refuses to die

    https://fumanchucomplex.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/the-face-of-fu-manchu-original1.jpg

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  3. There is AVA for food sold here. We need an AVA for education, for employing foreigners, for rogue foreigners, for rogue retailers.

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  4. @ RB:

    >> Is the education scene too cavalier?

    No, it's about choice, and keeping the market as "free" as possible.

    >> Where is this thing called moral obligation or responsibility?

    There is no such thing as "moral obligation". You are either a moral person or not. Responsibility is almost always with the buyer: CAVEAT EMPTOR, and most importantly: You can't cheat an honest man.

    >> What is ethical consideration?

    Up to both the buyer and seller. They have to work it out between them. The govt only has to apply "a light touch" and step in only if things start to blow up big time...i.e. small failures should be allowed, that's how (free??) markets work lah.

    It's early days still. You need a lot of chaos, plenty of failure and some successes. Overtime, the systems mature and become more stable. Degrees and qualifications which have market value will live, the others will die. Institutions who build good reputations will prevail and continue, the bullshitters will fail and go out of business.

    But all this takes time. And yes, there will be some blood and many losers, but over time the education system will become not only ROBUST, WELL RESPECTED but also ADAPTABLE to the changing demands of the market place. i.e. you go for tertiary education to acquire marketable skills. So a long period of experimentation is required to develop a system which can deliver those skills.

    At the moment people like redbean think this is a disaster. Well, of course there are going to be a lot of "cock ups" -- this is EXPECTED LAH. Think social experiment in education.

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  5. Chee bye.....

    Anybody know the incentives given to these companies, institutions to set shops in singapore

    Are these freebies ever revealed to the public??? These are tax payers money

    Why other parties never ask just questions before?

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  6. P.S. I have to give kudos to the Singapore govt in the area of free-wheeling education market place. Delivery of education services is changing. Look at the MOOCs and private providers on the internet like Lynda, Udemy, Cousera and many terrestrial universities. Also Khan academy, now funded by Bill Gates himself.

    It take a government with BIG BALLS to allow a free market in education, and UNDERSTAND that failures and losses are part and parcel of a free market--because thats how important lessons are learnt. We are a species which has the capacity to learn from mistakes and successes and adapt accordingly -- because EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE derived from EXPERIMENT is the ultimate arbiter on proving or disproving any claim, theory or hypothesis.

    Got caveat emptor and big balls?

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  7. Tiok tiok. Our private education is like Sim Lim Square. Everything is not illegal. Good, good.

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  8. @1131:

    >> Everything is not illegal. Good, good.

    Of course, it is very fucking good. Once in awhile you get a "cowboy" who refuses to play by decency and the norms of good commerce and so eventually he'll fuck himself up because well-meaning customers will not put up with that shit.

    It was the free market of ideas and communication on the internet which killed off Jover's less-than-decent behaviour with a customer. People got angry very quickly and fucked up the guy's business -- much quicker than the so-called "efficient sg.gov" could act.

    In a free market individual responsibility and action trounce govt. regulation, any day.

    And the number one choice is always with the individual: Don't like Sim Lim? Then don't shop there.

    Similarly, you dun like free wheeling private education in Singapore? Then don't pay and don't fucking study.

    Simple, yah?

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  9. Eh monkey, which jungle you came from. Law of the jungle? This cheating game has been going on for decades. Where did you come from?

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  10. Snake oil sellers everywhere not only in education. Within private education, there are some good ones and did help some people who cannot afford formal schools to achieve personal success in their lives by study and working at the same time.

    Just like buying shares, try to buy the good ones lah. Do some homework and source out the good ones. It is a discipline that once learnt, will be yours forever.

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  11. @ people who still don't get it:

    "The Cheating Game" is part and parcel of human nature. ALL HUMANS cheat at some time or other. Most frequently, they cheat themselves by their thinking and their personal choices.

    So what you wanna do? Emphasis on the "you".

    You can't cheat an honest man, therefore it pays to be an honest person -- your fucking monkey-brain choice lah.

    To confuse the situation even further, human-apes are capable of being scrupulously honest and making "good" choices. We know this to also be true because we have not yet wiped ourselves out to extinction. Without the capacity for "good", we would never survive as a species.

    UNREGULATED, FREE MARKET PRIVATE EDUCATION HAS EXISTED IN SINGAPORE FOR MANY MANY DECADES . And it has worked excellently with the problems which occur being resolved quickly and efficiently.

    We know this as PRIVATE TUTION. Parents have been paying for private tuition for their kids long before the PAP was even conceived. And it has delivered EXCELLENTLY -- generally speaking.

    Then their are the lessons and tuition for music, ballet, martial arts, sports, arts and drama etc...all PRIVATE SECTOR and loosely regulated.

    Private education works well. It has worked and continues to work so well, EVERYONE HERE missed it -- because there is no reason to doubt its efficacy.

    Got powers of observation?

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