I WAS surprised and relieved to see the article on Sunday ('Is
your child's tutor qualified?').
I am the chief executive officer of the Australian Tutoring
Association (ATA) and last year, while in Singapore, I met two
large tuition companies here to speak about issues that the tuition
industry could address.
These issues included:
Both businesses expressed interest in forming an association
similar to the ATA. However, neither has acted despite both
recognising serious issues in the industry.
In Australia, the ATA has given consumers a choice between those
places offering accountable, honest and open tuition, and those
that do not.
We do this by having members agree to abide by our code of
conduct, which is available online to consumers and to which all
members are accountable.
Why isn't there a tuition association in Singapore which
benchmarks minimum standards for all tutors?
Why is the industry unregulated?
Who is most vulnerable?
A responsible industry has a representative body. It seems odd
that in Singapore, where there is a real focus on education, the
private sector is not called upon to demonstrate more initiative
with regard to consumers.
The worst aspects of the sector in Australia are similar to
those that occur here: Online tuition and the use of agents (in the
case of tuition agencies that are not registered with the Ministry
of Education).
I think serious questions should be asked about the tuition
sector in Singapore, and all related businesses should be subject
to greater consumer scrutiny until there is a representative body
that is prepared to publicly call for minimum standards and work
with the Government as well as consumer protection and educational
bodies.
Mohan Dhall