Singapore's education authority has cancelled the registration of a private education institute for repeatedly breaching regulations under the Private Education Act. The institution has been ordered to shut down immediately.
The Committee for Private Education (CPE) said in a statement that private beauty and wellness services school Edes Academy will have its registration cancelled from Feb 9 and will not be allowed to offer private education courses with immediate effect. According to the CPE, the school will also have to refund the full course fees to all the existing students or place them in other schools by Feb 9.
Based on investigations, the CPA said Edes had failed to maintain proper student attendance records after repeated warnings. Students who were absent were also marked as present. The institution also failed to inform the Committee of changes on its management, which is a mandatory requirement under the law.
As part of information transparency for current and prospective students, it is mandatory to publish the information about the school's teacher-student ratio and members of its academic board on its website. But, Edes failed to do that as well. The CPE said that it will take strict actions against errant private education operators if they don't abide by the Private Education Act and its regulations.
"While the private education sector has improved over the years, students need to be discerning when choosing the private education institute they enrol with, as errant ones still exist," Brandon Lee, Director-General (Private Education) at SkillsFuture Singapore told AsiaOne.
Lee also urged the public to give feedback about the education system to improve the standards in the private education sector.
