Singapore school must compensate for closure
Vietnamese agencies discussed Wednesday redress for students and employees of a Singapore-run English language center and ministries’ accountability after the center unexpectedly closed down last month.
The Singapore International Teaching Consultancy (SITC) closed its centers in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and other provinces for good Jan. 22, leaving 30,000 students and teaching staff, including foreign teachers, in the lurch.
The exact number of centers it ran is not known since it had several illegal ones though there are estimates it had six in HCMC, three in Hanoi besides others in Can Tho, Khanh Hoa, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Hai Phong, and Da Nang.
The institute, said to be one of those that had the largest student enrolment in Vietnam, owed several billion dong to students, and hundreds of millions of dong in salaries to the teachers.
The Wednesday meeting was attended by officials from the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MoPI) and Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) and education departments in cities and provinces where SITC had branches.
The same day the MoPI also held discussions with the Singaporean Embassy on the matter.
Phan Huu Thang, head of the MoPI’s Foreign Investment Office told Thanh Nien consensus was reached at the meeting to close down the group and persuade its investor, Life Knowledge Consultancy Pte. Ltd, to compensate the injured parties.
The ministry is also considering slapping penalties on the owner, including legal action.
The Ministry of Public Security is hunting for Michael Yu, SITC’s Vietnam director, and other managers who have all fled, and has sealed its premises.
The ministries will soon report to the government.
The Singaporean embassy has promised to dispose of the matter quickly.
A MoET source said the UK’s APOLLO and AEC branches in Singapore had expressed interest in purchasing the institute.
Meanwhile, several local language centers have offered to provide free short courses and discounts to SITC’s students.
Infringements
The MoPI reported at the meeting that SITC had submitted two yearly operation reports since being licensed in 2003 but without earnings, staff, or enrolment details.
The education ministry said it had launched investigations in July last year. The probes revealed the institute’s violations, including illegal operations at several places, offering unauthorized distance learning master’s courses, and excessive advertising and enrolment.
It repeatedly promised to “rectify [its] mistakes soon”, but Yu vanished just days before the lunar New Year late last month followed by the shutdown.
However, the investigations failed to uncover any of SITC’s financial problems with officials saying they were not eligible to check its financial status since such foreign owned agencies operate under the Enterprise Law.
They admitted to being taken by surprise by the closure with those in Ho Chi Minh City still believing the schools would reopen after the New Year as promised.
Where things went wrong
“The incident speaks volumes about the inadequate supervision of foreign-owned educational agencies,” a chief inspector Hoang Minh Luat of the MoET said.
He attributed the fiasco to the lack of coordination between the education and finance ministries.
He pointed out the education ministry played almost no role in licensing such agencies though its finance counterpart did.
“The finance ministry often does did not notify our agency of new licensees and so we are in the dark about those who do not register with us,” he added.
Luat called for changing the system which allowed MoPI to issue the licenses.
By Thu Hong & Manh Quan - Thanh Nien - February 9, 2006.
Singapore-owned schools close, troubling VN students
HANOI - At least 30,000 students and 1,000 teachers remain puzzled by the closure of the English-language schools operated by Singapore International Teaching Consultancy (SITC) nationwide.
Following schools in the south, those in Ha Noi also suddenly shut down earlier this week. In a meeting held yesterday in Ha Noi, the Ministry of Planning and Investment said it would require SITC to provide information about the sudden closures in Viet Nam.
If the centre is unable to re-open classes, SITC will have to offer compensation for its students, teachers and workers according to Viet Nam’s laws, and the investors will face sanctions under the country’s regulations.
The ministry will also consider a lawsuit based on international treaties and relevant laws. It will ask for help from the Singaporean Embassy in Viet Nam, the Vietnamese Embassy in Singapore, and Singapore’s Economic Development Bureau to solve this problem.
Deputy director of the Ministry of Education and Training’s Continuing Education Department, Lai Huu Mien, said police were investigating the closures and looking for the SITC’s general director, Michael Yu.
SITC was granted a licence in HCM City by the Ministry of Education and Training in June 2004, but the company subsequently opened units in many other areas, including Ha Noi, Da Nang and Can Tho, even though it had not yet received permission from local education and training departments.
In Khanh Hoa Province alone, the schools owed their staff VND135 million and their students VND1.7 billion.
Vietnam News Agency - February 9, 2006.
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