Private beauty school to be shut down for repeated regulatory breaches

AsiaOne
Wednesday, Jan 25, 2017

A private education institute will be shuttered after it was found to have repeatedly breached regulations under the Private Education Act.

In a statement on Wednesday (Jan 25), the Committee for Private Education (CPE) said that private beauty and wellness services school Edes Academy will have its registration cancelled from Feb 9. It will not be allowed to offer private education courses with immediate effect.

The school will also have to refund the full course fees to existing students or place them in other schools by Feb 9.

According to the CPE, investigations revealed that Edes had failed to maintain proper student attendance records, with absent students being indicated as present.

Moreover, it failed to inform the Committee of changes on its management, a mandatory requirement under the law.

The school also did not publish information about its teacher-student ratio and members of its academic board on its website, which is required as part of information transparency for current and prospective students.

The CPE stressed that it will not hesitate to take errant private education operators to task if they contravene 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," said Mr Brandon Lee, Director-General (Private Education) at SkillsFuture Singapore.

He also encouraged members of the public to continue providing feedback to improve standards in the private education sector.