Regulating Private Special Schools

Madam, the Private Education Act was passed in September 2009 to strengthen and level up the private education sector. As a result, the Council for Private Education (CPE) was set up to raise standards in the sector through effective regulation, industry development and consumer education. A wide range of private education institutions exists in Singapore.

It is the private special education schools that I wish to draw the Ministry's attention to. Privately run special schools have been sprouting up in Singapore. Some of them are owned by local operators whilst others are foreign-owned. Children with special needs from both local and expatriate families attend these classes.

However, because this education offering is targeted at a very vulnerable segment of children and families, I believe MOE must exercise a stronger moral responsibility and take a more active role in overseeing these schools or centres.

The strategic thrusts of the CPE are to ensure quality assurance and effective consumer education, amongst others. These private special schools are known in the market as MOE-registered and it is highly plausible that their education programmes, facilities and even pricings are perceived to be endorsed by MOE by the parents.

I urge MOE to conduct proper due diligence and reference checks before registering these schools and perform its duty of ensuring quality assurance and effective consumer education. To protect the consumers (in this case, the children) after they have been abused or harmed, might be too late in some instances.

Quality assurance cannot be just about hardware or administration, in the business of education. I would like to seek the Ministry's inputs on how it intends to protect the interests of especially the children, some of whom may not be even able to express themselves.