Parliamentary Replies
Quality Assurance Framework
Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng, MP for Jalan Besar GRC
Question
To ask the Minister for Education if he will provide an update on the Quality Assurance Frameworks for private schools and special schools.
Response
MOE will be moving a new Private Education Bill in Parliament in the later half of this year. As part of the new regulatory regime, a voluntary quality assurance scheme for private education institutions (PEIs) called EduTrust will be introduced. The EduTrust Certification Scheme will complement the enhanced set of mandatory requirements stipulated under new registration framework.
A public consultation on the new registration framework and EduTrust Scheme was carried out from 11 Mar to 6 May 2009. Respondents of the public consultation were generally supportive of the move towards tighter regulation of the PEIs and welcomed EduTrust as a framework to uplift standards in the industry. The Pro-tem Council for Private Education (CPE) has carefully studied all the feedback received and changes were made to the enhanced registration regime and EduTrust requirements. More details will be provided when the Bill is moved in Parliament.
The Pro-tem CPE Secretariat also recently completed a trial assessment of the draft Quality Assurance framework for EduTrust with 17 PEIs of varying profiles. This exercise was done to gather empirical data for calibrating the EduTrust assessment mechanism and processes and to iron out any kinks in the system. With the insights and data obtained from the trial, the assessment criteria are currently being fine-tuned and the document detailing the finalised EduTrust requirements will be made available to interested PEIs by the end of this quarter.
Let me now provide an update on the development of the QA framework for Special Education (SPED) schools. Since 2005, SPED Schools have been conducting self- appraisal using an evaluation tool, AXIS (Aspiration towards eXcellence In Special education) which was developed by a team of SPED school principals and MOE officers.
A workgroup comprising SPED school principals and officers from MOE and NCSS, was formed in Aug 2007, to develop a QA Framework for SPED schools. Based on their study of local and overseas systems, and inputs from Members of SPED School Management Committees, Principals and school staff, they have drafted a framework and a QA instrument. Field testing of the draft QA instrument was conducted in April this year. The QA instrument is currently being refined taking into consideration feedback from this field test.
By the end of 2009, SPED school principals would be trained on the use of the draft QA instrument which schools would use, on a pilot basis, to replace the AXIS. By the end of 2010, the QA instrument will be rolled out to the SPED schools which are funded by MOE and the National Council for Social Services. For the private full-time special education schools, they will come under the scope of the PE Act and may apply for EduTrust certification to meet their QA needs.
When it is ready, the QA framework and instrument will enable SPED schools to embark on a systematic school improvement process that will be based on a 4-year cycle i.e. annual self-evaluation exercises for three years, followed by an external review on the fourth year.