Upset parents want Ministry to take action against college

KOTA KINABALU: The disgruntled parents of a former student of a college here (name withheld) have urged the Ministry of Higher Education to probe into the college's alleged malpractices and to take appropriate action.

Dr Forest Kang Kee Yeow and his wife, Judy Chai sfressed that this was necessary to safeguard the integrity and standards of private institutions of higher learning in the country.

"In the best interest of the education system of this country, we here by solemnly call upon the relevant authorities especially the Ministry, to thoroughly investigate the dubious and unscrupulous conducts of the college, in which as far as we the parents are concerned, are unprofessional, irresponsible, unethical, unacceptable and unfitting of a private institution of education.

"We hope the Ministry will act in the best interest of the public without fear or favour, in accordance with the provisions of the Private Higher Education Institution Act 1996.

"We believe this is important so as to send out the right messase to the rest of the private education institutions in the country. We just can't afford to have our education system, and subsequently our beloved nation, be ruined by a haudful of unscrupulous and irresponsible individuals masquerading as educationists," he said.

He was speaking to reports at a third news conference facilitated by Luyang State Assemblywoman, Melanie Chia in a month.

He reiterated that the Ministry must be seen to be serious and impartial in their investigation into the matter, citing alleged attempts by the said university college to cover their alleged malpractices, such as operating without an Occupational Certificate (OC) and allowing overcrowded student hostels.

Dr Kang claimed that upon conducting a follow-up check on the college on Tuesday, he found that all its students have been evacuated and the campus is now empty.

“We also received cornplaints from the other parents over the abrupt transfer of their children from here to the Kuala Lumpur main campus, effective from 9 August for an uncertain period of time. There were no proper reasons given for this aprupt change. On top of that, the April 2011 intake students also received sudden instructions for early school holidays for a month with immediate effect, when it was supposed to start on 27 August,” he claimed.

According to him what really irked the couple and the other parents was when a senior official of the college brought along with him three thuggish-looking men and barged into the meeting room of The Public Complaints Bureau (PCB) here on Tuesday when they were making a complaint at the bureau.

"The said official intimidated us by asking: 'Kamu orang mahu mati kah?' Do you people want to die?). We were rather scared at that time and even the director of the PCB was visibly stunned by what happened. I then called the police and this group of people fled the scene just before the police arrived," related Dr Kang.

Dr Kang, his wife and the other parents later went to the Karamunsing police sation to lodge a report on the matter. He was informed by a senior police officer yesterday that the police have summoned the said college offcial to the police station to assist in their investigation.

Dr Kang was also dissatisfied with the Ministry's slow response to his complaints saying that prior to the intimidating incident, he had complained to the Ministry several times, urging them to take action against the college.

“But sadly, only when the college deployed some thuggish characters and police were called in, the Ministry dispatched a senior enforcement officer (Feisal Bin Muhamad Ali) on Wednesday, to investigate our complaints. We then immediately had a meeting at the Public Complaint Bureau chaired by its derector,” he said.

Before the senior enforcement officer from the Private Higher Education Sector under the Ministry returned to Putrajaya the following day, both Dr Kang and the director of the PCB conducted an interview with several other tenants near the college campus located at the 1 Bomeo Hypermall.

"Preliminary findings established that the college indeed had been operating there for the last few months," said Dr Kang.

He added that the senior enforcement of officer promised to give him an answer latest by 15 August on the action to be taken against the college.

He further noted that during a fol-low-up check with the Kota Kinabalu City Hall on the status of the college campus, he was further shocked to find out that they did not have a valid trading license from the City Hall.

Even the trading license of their appointed recruitment agency, had expired since 2009.

During the press conference, Dr Kang produced photographic evidence and documents to substantiate his claims and allegations.

Meanwhile, in her response to the issue, Melanie too urged the Ministry to thorolghly investigate the matter. 

While acknowledging that private in stitutions of higher learning have become a lucrative business, she asserted that the operators must not compromise integriry and standard for a bigger profit and faster return of their investment.

New Sabah Times

Saturday 13 August, 2011

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