With regards to today’s news, we wish to re-iterate that the issue involves our former boss Mr Abu Bakar who has retired. It has no bearing with the present management.
We do not see the relevance of this report except that we feel the reporter is reporting, “to destabilize and create fear” to our valued customers and staffs. With all his students and parents interests at heart, Mr Norman took over the management to ensure the continuity of the business so that it could operate without any problem. Under the new management, our new boss is making all the necessary effort to ensure that the school operates efficiently. However, with the sabotaging of staffs such as stealing of company’s money and poaching of our students to their new center, the new management has to face up with many unnecessary problems. The BH reporter has not shown care and concern about the school’s reputation, especially the student’s and parents’ interests by making negative reports about us.
It has nothing to do with the present management under the flagship of Mr. Norman. Under this management, we wish to assure all our valued customers that we are operating the center normally. We also managed to speak and explain to some parents about our present situation. Both our centers have new teachers in place.
We are of the opinion that BH has a personal vendetta against us for informing all our customers that he had made 2 bad and inaccurate reporting. One involving Mdm Nuramiza who claimed $3,000 and the other regarding the “alleged eviction notice issued by our landlord, who we had denied but the BH reported had said otherwise”. Mdm Nuramiza has yesterday called us up to clarify that the report was false. She and our management had contacted the BH reporter for clarification and retraction of the news. We had suggested that he put the error in “Ralat” but both requests were firmly turned down by him. Instead of apologizing his mistakes, he has issued several “threats” to expose our former boss but we ignored, as we believe it has no relevance to our present situation. We believe that is why the news about our former boss was put in the limelight.
We wish to finally re-iterate that the new management wishes to continue providing quality education service to all our customers and do not wish to be embroiled in the negative reporting of one particular reporter. Please give us the opportunity and support to continuosly performs our duties as diligently as our former boss has provided as we put behind us the entire negative episode behind us.
Monday, August 6, 2007
Berita Harian 7/8/08
The reporter has today reported on the issues involving our former boss Mr Abu Bakar whom he claimed has failed to pay CPF contributions.
We wish to emphasize that this issue does not involve our new boss Mr Norman Abu Bakar who took over the business in April 2007. We also wish to emphasize that the issue regarding teachers' boycott has been resolved and that we have recruited new teachers for our school.
Parents are advised not to be alarmed with such news as the school is operating as usual even though there are some withdrawals. We wish to thank all parents who are being professional by either calling or approaching our centre for clarification and are satisfied with our assurance. They are not swayed by negative reports about our school. They prefer our high quality education system and have shown their resolve and support towards our school, which has been providing our service for many years now. All our staffs are still around to attend and asnwer to all queries without hesitation. Parents can call or come persoanlly or visit our blog for updates.
LITTLE LEARNERS
This is the picture of the school set up by our ex-employees called Little Learners.
BH failed to produce photos of the banners at the center. How come?
We also append herewith Little Learners advertisement.
Upon checking with ACCRA, we discovered that Little Learners is not a registered business name as claimed on the banner and advertisements. Don’t you think this is misleading the public? MOE and MCYS through their statement have indicated that there is no application to register Little Learners with their department. How come they can advertise their service when their approval is not in place?
See their BH ad dd 8, 9 & 10 June 2006.
All underlined texts in the photos indicated that they are going to conduct classes in July 2007. They even conducted Open House on 9 & 10 June 2007. How could they deny that the school does not exist?
BH failed to produce photos of the banners at the center. How come?
We also append herewith Little Learners advertisement.
Upon checking with ACCRA, we discovered that Little Learners is not a registered business name as claimed on the banner and advertisements. Don’t you think this is misleading the public? MOE and MCYS through their statement have indicated that there is no application to register Little Learners with their department. How come they can advertise their service when their approval is not in place?
See their BH ad dd 8, 9 & 10 June 2006.
All underlined texts in the photos indicated that they are going to conduct classes in July 2007. They even conducted Open House on 9 & 10 June 2007. How could they deny that the school does not exist?
Why don’t BH and other media investigate them? Why is BH reporter so anxious about the personal history of our former founder who has already retired and hand over our business to our new boss Mr Norman? Isn't this a more compelling reason for them to investigate Little Learners?
BH is neither interested to seek our clarification on why the transport operators were not paid, nor was it interested to find out why the transport operator did not surrender all the deposit money as agreed? Rather, BH is so interested in us not obtaining URA permit for our center at No 75A. BH has through its inaccurate and improper reporting caused great damage to our reputation.Seriously, BH should stick their story to the present situation. Instead of meddling with our former boss’s personal life, he should quickly obtain documentary proof from Mdm Nuramiza as to how she said we owe her $3,000. Many readers want to know the explanation.
With due respect to BH please ask and report on current and relevant issues pertaining to Mr Norman's management.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
PRESS RELEASE
Date : 4 August 2007
From : The Management of Hijrah Kindergarten
To : All Our Valued Customers
RE : PRESS RELEASE
We refer to the recent news articles about our kindergartens. Some of the concerns raised were:
TRANSPORT PROBLEM
Our transport operator claimed that we do not pay them their dues. This is totally not true. On several occasions over the past few years, we received complaints from parents who claimed that they lost their deposit money because the previous transport operator went bust. Attempts to recover these monies were futile.
In view of the above, the management had imposed conditions to the new and prospective operators that all collection of deposits for the month of December paid by parents to them be surrendered to us. Once these monies have been surrendered, we will open up a new joint account with the transport operator. Upon successful completion of service, i.e. in November, the management will release the money held in the bank to the bus operator. In these instances, our transport operator had failed to surrender the deposit money as agreed in the Agreement. They cited financial problems as reason for not surrendering these monies. In view of these, the school had no alternative but to deduct CDA collection money for the transport to offset for the deposits paid to them. They have also failed to pay up a Security Deposit till this date. This Security Deposit is to ensure that the operator provides a satisfactory service. The Security Deposit money will be deducted if the operator fails to provide transport services on any days or receives too many complaints.
On few occasions when the management approached the transport operator, they admitted that they tried asking parents to pay in cash despite the arrangement that parents can pay transport fee via CDA account. They claimed that they are in urgent need to pay for their vans monthly installment and had apologized to us and assured us that they will not force parents to pay in cash except from September onwards where parents has been informed through our Circular that such arrangement will not continue as the number of parents using this facility is small. On top of that some of the parents account is always in the negative balance.
Since January, many parents complained that the transport service is poor. They delayed the picking and sending back of the children daily until today, which resulted in the children reaching and leaving the school late. Some of the vans do not have any Attendant as required by LTA. We have on many occasions reminded the transport operator to be more professional, but till this date the improvement is slight. The bus is still cramped with students who arrived to school late almost daily. We had solicited some other non-Muslim transport operators but discovered that their asking price is too high i.e. an increase of more than 30 – 35 percent. In our continued effort to make our services competitive, we find that this increase may be too taxing the parents especially those who sent more than 2 children to our school. To make matters worse, it is an uphill task to find replacement operator during this period. Most of the transport operators are already engaged. The only reasonable time to hunt for new transport operator will be in Nov-Dec period.
One of our transport operators was very ambitious. He set up a new kindergarten perhaps thinking that kindergarten business is lucrative. By offering some company shares, he managed to entice our senior management staff and teachers to quit and join his company. He embarked on a cheap marketing strategy by enticing our teachers to join him too. Prior to the teacher’s resignation, they had called all parents to enroll their children in the new kindergarten situated at No 1 Jalan Suasa. The name of the kindergarten is Little Learners. They bad-mouth our school and forewarned parents that the kindergarten is closing down sometime in June 2007. Datelines after datelines were issued to parents that Hijrah Kindergarten will close its business, but it never happened. The bus operator and the teacher even brought our students inside their new kindergarten and tried to impress the children to study in their school and say bad things about our school.
Their claim that the school did not pay their dues is therefore baseless, as they had not forwarded the deposit money to the school and that only around 12 students pay through their CDA account. The school had made many attempts to obtain the Invoice from the present transport operator but each time we asked, the wife said that her husband is serving National Service. This is not true as some parents saw the operator and his family members cleaning and painting his new school at Jalan Suasa. Their promises to forward to us their Invoices were never fulfilled.
CHILDREN NOT HAVING WORKSHEETS AND BOOKS IN SCHOOL
As reported in the BH on 3rd August, some of these teachers “played dirty” by purposely not issuing worksheets and not teaching student in their class to give bad impression to parents about our school. They claimed that there were no books and worksheets to be issued. This is very contradictive, as all our worksheets have been given to these teachers on a weekly basis. The management conducts weekly meeting with teachers of all centers wherein at the end of the meeting, the teachers are required to make photocopies of their worksheets. Last week, when one of our photocopy machines broke down, the management makes photocopies from the other branch and sent it to the affected centre. Some of our remaining teachers confirmed that the books and worksheets were given to them. Some parents confirmed that they did receive worksheets for their child. This is another attempt by the ex-staff to discredit the school by not issuing proper worksheets to students.
Instead of teaching, they stole the school’s data and started to call parents to enroll their child into their new kindergarten. They also spread rumours that Hijrah Kindergarten is closing down all its operation. They had on several occasions warned parents about this and gave several datelines about our closure but all these datelines has lapsed without any incident. Frustrated that their ploy and strategies does not does worked well, they went to the press. With the resignation of three of our teachers, our Ponggol branch is left with 2 qualified teachers. The management is trying to recruit more credible teachers in the shortest time possible to minimize disruptions to the children.
CLOSURE OF JALAN SINGA AND WOODLANDS BRANCH
In early July, we did close our Singa and Woodlands operation because the enrolment was very small i.e less than 50 students. Our operational cost to maintain both these centers is high. With rent costing $3k, Principal salary $2k, 3 Teachers salaries costing $3k, Cook salary another $1k, excluding marketing utilities, the cost exceeds $10k per month. Income from enrolment is less than $6k.
CLOSURE OF CHOA CHU KANG BRANCH
In late last year, the owner of our previous unit situated at No 75C sold off his property without giving ample notice for us to relocate.
With the children’s education at heart and our commitment to provide continous education service, we managed to secure the new premises at No 75A. We had thought all along that the use of our Temporary Permit, which was issued by URA (due to expire in June 2007), could be used for our new unit since we are just shifting next door. However, URA informed us that once we moved out, we have to make new application. Our new application and appeals by our MP was turned down on several occasions. Finally on 25 June 2007, the appeal was granted.
We had never intended to close this branch, as it is profitable. The reporter from BH had misquoted the Housing Agent. The agent claimed that the reporter “twist and turn” his questions and the agent were not aware and prepared to answer reporter’s questions, which resulted in the misstatement. All she said was that the owner is planning to sell away the house but has not done so. In the event that if they decide to sell the house, they will give us notice to vacate the place by the year’s end.
In the event that the premise is sold, parents do not have to worry as we are now taking over a new premise at Block 445 Choa Chu Kang. All our children can be transferred there.
DOUBLE DEDUCTIONS AND REFUNDS
On every 20th of the month, the school will submit CDA deduction to the bank for the coming months fees. The value date for this deduction is fixed for 1st day of the following months. Double deductions usually occur when some parents inform their intention to withdraw their child from our school after this date. The school is unable to retrieve the diskettes submitted to the bank, as it will disrupt the value date. Double deductions may also occur due to the error when our accounts department staff makes error by keying-in the names twice on the system. This problem also occurs in other childcare and kindergartens.
Mr Norman admitted that over-deductions had occurred in some cases, but said similar incidents had occurred in other kindergartens. He put it down to technical error.
"In most cases, we inform parents that if this occurs, the school will not make any deductions of fees in the following months to offset the over-deductions," he said. – Channel News Asia & TODAY (2 & 3 Aug 07)
When these problems occur and parents realized about the error, the school usually informs the parents to forward to the school a copy of their bank statement for verification. The school usually will inform parents that it will not effect any deduction for the following month to offset the double-deduction. Please refer to Channel NewsAsia & TODAY (2nd & 3rd Aug 2007)
Mdm Latifah, 40, a hospital administrative supervisor, alleged that $800 was deducted from her savings account last week, when the school fees should account for only $125 per month. She has yet to get a response from the school.
"There was no letter explaining the breakdown of the deletion from my account," she said, claiming this was not the first time an over-deduction had occurred. "They deducted an extra $300 in February last year, but they waived the fees for the next three months to offset it."
Despite her experience, Mdm Latifah said she was unlikely to withdraw her child from the kindergarten – Channel News Asia & TODAY (2 & 3 Aug 07)-
REFUNDS
Most of the claims for refunds have been made.
But Mdm Lizah, who encountered a $350 over-deduction in February, withdrew her daughter last month. She has received a refund from the school. – Channel News Asia & TODAY (2 & 3 Aug 07)-
The remaining claims for refunds are still under processing. To expedite refunds, parents are advised not to make undue demands for a Full refund. Most of the remaining claims were delayed because parents insist on a full refund even though they do not meet the criteria a full refund. Refunds shall be processed and refunded based on first-come-first-served basis. We appeal to these parents to be flexible in their claim. We also need more time to process as now all our staff is involved in answering calls and visits from parents.
NON-PAYMENT OF SALARIES AND CPF
Upon taking over of the entire management, Mr Norman had made attempts to transfer previous CDA accounts payable into his new account. He has to submit new and fresh applications to MCYS, DBS bank and his own bank to process the change in account status. There were some technical problems along the way, which resulted in the CDA deductions being delayed for the month of July, which eventually resulted in the delay of payment of salaries to the 3 cooks. However, all teachers’ salaries have been paid except for the CPF, which the company owes for the month of May and June 2007.
Even the teachers confirmed that they did receive their salaries.
The three cooks and three teachers were heading down to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) for advice over alleged wage arrears.
One of the six, who declined to be named, claimed the cooks had not been paid for two months, while the teachers were owed CPF contributions. The MOM confirmed it had advised the kindergarten staff on labour matters but no claims were filed . – Channel News Asia & TODAY (2 & 3 Aug 07)-
We are in the process of settling these dues with the CPF very soon. We wish to re-iterate and assure all our valued customers that our centre is not having any financial problems.
Police reports have been made against staffs that had committed Criminal Breach of Trust and police are investigating. Their claims that collection monies were used to pay electricity bills etc were a ploy to cover up their immoral acts. They had till this date refused to return some of the company’s receipt books and had in fact disposed some receipt books to avoid detection. Legal actions will also be instituted against those who had made wild accusations against us such as the parent who claimed that she is being owed $3,000.
On behalf of the management, we wish to assure all our valued customers that we take all feedback and their views positively. The recent news will not affect the integrity and viability of our school. We will strive to improve on our weaknesses and wish to thank all our valued customers who continue to show support and confidence in our school. Our new management team has also recently returned from Malaysia to find suitable premises to set up branches there.
From : The Management of Hijrah Kindergarten
To : All Our Valued Customers
RE : PRESS RELEASE
We refer to the recent news articles about our kindergartens. Some of the concerns raised were:
TRANSPORT PROBLEM
Our transport operator claimed that we do not pay them their dues. This is totally not true. On several occasions over the past few years, we received complaints from parents who claimed that they lost their deposit money because the previous transport operator went bust. Attempts to recover these monies were futile.
In view of the above, the management had imposed conditions to the new and prospective operators that all collection of deposits for the month of December paid by parents to them be surrendered to us. Once these monies have been surrendered, we will open up a new joint account with the transport operator. Upon successful completion of service, i.e. in November, the management will release the money held in the bank to the bus operator. In these instances, our transport operator had failed to surrender the deposit money as agreed in the Agreement. They cited financial problems as reason for not surrendering these monies. In view of these, the school had no alternative but to deduct CDA collection money for the transport to offset for the deposits paid to them. They have also failed to pay up a Security Deposit till this date. This Security Deposit is to ensure that the operator provides a satisfactory service. The Security Deposit money will be deducted if the operator fails to provide transport services on any days or receives too many complaints.
On few occasions when the management approached the transport operator, they admitted that they tried asking parents to pay in cash despite the arrangement that parents can pay transport fee via CDA account. They claimed that they are in urgent need to pay for their vans monthly installment and had apologized to us and assured us that they will not force parents to pay in cash except from September onwards where parents has been informed through our Circular that such arrangement will not continue as the number of parents using this facility is small. On top of that some of the parents account is always in the negative balance.
Since January, many parents complained that the transport service is poor. They delayed the picking and sending back of the children daily until today, which resulted in the children reaching and leaving the school late. Some of the vans do not have any Attendant as required by LTA. We have on many occasions reminded the transport operator to be more professional, but till this date the improvement is slight. The bus is still cramped with students who arrived to school late almost daily. We had solicited some other non-Muslim transport operators but discovered that their asking price is too high i.e. an increase of more than 30 – 35 percent. In our continued effort to make our services competitive, we find that this increase may be too taxing the parents especially those who sent more than 2 children to our school. To make matters worse, it is an uphill task to find replacement operator during this period. Most of the transport operators are already engaged. The only reasonable time to hunt for new transport operator will be in Nov-Dec period.
One of our transport operators was very ambitious. He set up a new kindergarten perhaps thinking that kindergarten business is lucrative. By offering some company shares, he managed to entice our senior management staff and teachers to quit and join his company. He embarked on a cheap marketing strategy by enticing our teachers to join him too. Prior to the teacher’s resignation, they had called all parents to enroll their children in the new kindergarten situated at No 1 Jalan Suasa. The name of the kindergarten is Little Learners. They bad-mouth our school and forewarned parents that the kindergarten is closing down sometime in June 2007. Datelines after datelines were issued to parents that Hijrah Kindergarten will close its business, but it never happened. The bus operator and the teacher even brought our students inside their new kindergarten and tried to impress the children to study in their school and say bad things about our school.
Their claim that the school did not pay their dues is therefore baseless, as they had not forwarded the deposit money to the school and that only around 12 students pay through their CDA account. The school had made many attempts to obtain the Invoice from the present transport operator but each time we asked, the wife said that her husband is serving National Service. This is not true as some parents saw the operator and his family members cleaning and painting his new school at Jalan Suasa. Their promises to forward to us their Invoices were never fulfilled.
CHILDREN NOT HAVING WORKSHEETS AND BOOKS IN SCHOOL
As reported in the BH on 3rd August, some of these teachers “played dirty” by purposely not issuing worksheets and not teaching student in their class to give bad impression to parents about our school. They claimed that there were no books and worksheets to be issued. This is very contradictive, as all our worksheets have been given to these teachers on a weekly basis. The management conducts weekly meeting with teachers of all centers wherein at the end of the meeting, the teachers are required to make photocopies of their worksheets. Last week, when one of our photocopy machines broke down, the management makes photocopies from the other branch and sent it to the affected centre. Some of our remaining teachers confirmed that the books and worksheets were given to them. Some parents confirmed that they did receive worksheets for their child. This is another attempt by the ex-staff to discredit the school by not issuing proper worksheets to students.
Instead of teaching, they stole the school’s data and started to call parents to enroll their child into their new kindergarten. They also spread rumours that Hijrah Kindergarten is closing down all its operation. They had on several occasions warned parents about this and gave several datelines about our closure but all these datelines has lapsed without any incident. Frustrated that their ploy and strategies does not does worked well, they went to the press. With the resignation of three of our teachers, our Ponggol branch is left with 2 qualified teachers. The management is trying to recruit more credible teachers in the shortest time possible to minimize disruptions to the children.
CLOSURE OF JALAN SINGA AND WOODLANDS BRANCH
In early July, we did close our Singa and Woodlands operation because the enrolment was very small i.e less than 50 students. Our operational cost to maintain both these centers is high. With rent costing $3k, Principal salary $2k, 3 Teachers salaries costing $3k, Cook salary another $1k, excluding marketing utilities, the cost exceeds $10k per month. Income from enrolment is less than $6k.
CLOSURE OF CHOA CHU KANG BRANCH
In late last year, the owner of our previous unit situated at No 75C sold off his property without giving ample notice for us to relocate.
With the children’s education at heart and our commitment to provide continous education service, we managed to secure the new premises at No 75A. We had thought all along that the use of our Temporary Permit, which was issued by URA (due to expire in June 2007), could be used for our new unit since we are just shifting next door. However, URA informed us that once we moved out, we have to make new application. Our new application and appeals by our MP was turned down on several occasions. Finally on 25 June 2007, the appeal was granted.
We had never intended to close this branch, as it is profitable. The reporter from BH had misquoted the Housing Agent. The agent claimed that the reporter “twist and turn” his questions and the agent were not aware and prepared to answer reporter’s questions, which resulted in the misstatement. All she said was that the owner is planning to sell away the house but has not done so. In the event that if they decide to sell the house, they will give us notice to vacate the place by the year’s end.
In the event that the premise is sold, parents do not have to worry as we are now taking over a new premise at Block 445 Choa Chu Kang. All our children can be transferred there.
DOUBLE DEDUCTIONS AND REFUNDS
On every 20th of the month, the school will submit CDA deduction to the bank for the coming months fees. The value date for this deduction is fixed for 1st day of the following months. Double deductions usually occur when some parents inform their intention to withdraw their child from our school after this date. The school is unable to retrieve the diskettes submitted to the bank, as it will disrupt the value date. Double deductions may also occur due to the error when our accounts department staff makes error by keying-in the names twice on the system. This problem also occurs in other childcare and kindergartens.
Mr Norman admitted that over-deductions had occurred in some cases, but said similar incidents had occurred in other kindergartens. He put it down to technical error.
"In most cases, we inform parents that if this occurs, the school will not make any deductions of fees in the following months to offset the over-deductions," he said. – Channel News Asia & TODAY (2 & 3 Aug 07)
When these problems occur and parents realized about the error, the school usually informs the parents to forward to the school a copy of their bank statement for verification. The school usually will inform parents that it will not effect any deduction for the following month to offset the double-deduction. Please refer to Channel NewsAsia & TODAY (2nd & 3rd Aug 2007)
Mdm Latifah, 40, a hospital administrative supervisor, alleged that $800 was deducted from her savings account last week, when the school fees should account for only $125 per month. She has yet to get a response from the school.
"There was no letter explaining the breakdown of the deletion from my account," she said, claiming this was not the first time an over-deduction had occurred. "They deducted an extra $300 in February last year, but they waived the fees for the next three months to offset it."
Despite her experience, Mdm Latifah said she was unlikely to withdraw her child from the kindergarten – Channel News Asia & TODAY (2 & 3 Aug 07)-
REFUNDS
Most of the claims for refunds have been made.
But Mdm Lizah, who encountered a $350 over-deduction in February, withdrew her daughter last month. She has received a refund from the school. – Channel News Asia & TODAY (2 & 3 Aug 07)-
The remaining claims for refunds are still under processing. To expedite refunds, parents are advised not to make undue demands for a Full refund. Most of the remaining claims were delayed because parents insist on a full refund even though they do not meet the criteria a full refund. Refunds shall be processed and refunded based on first-come-first-served basis. We appeal to these parents to be flexible in their claim. We also need more time to process as now all our staff is involved in answering calls and visits from parents.
NON-PAYMENT OF SALARIES AND CPF
Upon taking over of the entire management, Mr Norman had made attempts to transfer previous CDA accounts payable into his new account. He has to submit new and fresh applications to MCYS, DBS bank and his own bank to process the change in account status. There were some technical problems along the way, which resulted in the CDA deductions being delayed for the month of July, which eventually resulted in the delay of payment of salaries to the 3 cooks. However, all teachers’ salaries have been paid except for the CPF, which the company owes for the month of May and June 2007.
Even the teachers confirmed that they did receive their salaries.
The three cooks and three teachers were heading down to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) for advice over alleged wage arrears.
One of the six, who declined to be named, claimed the cooks had not been paid for two months, while the teachers were owed CPF contributions. The MOM confirmed it had advised the kindergarten staff on labour matters but no claims were filed . – Channel News Asia & TODAY (2 & 3 Aug 07)-
We are in the process of settling these dues with the CPF very soon. We wish to re-iterate and assure all our valued customers that our centre is not having any financial problems.
Police reports have been made against staffs that had committed Criminal Breach of Trust and police are investigating. Their claims that collection monies were used to pay electricity bills etc were a ploy to cover up their immoral acts. They had till this date refused to return some of the company’s receipt books and had in fact disposed some receipt books to avoid detection. Legal actions will also be instituted against those who had made wild accusations against us such as the parent who claimed that she is being owed $3,000.
On behalf of the management, we wish to assure all our valued customers that we take all feedback and their views positively. The recent news will not affect the integrity and viability of our school. We will strive to improve on our weaknesses and wish to thank all our valued customers who continue to show support and confidence in our school. Our new management team has also recently returned from Malaysia to find suitable premises to set up branches there.
HIJRAH KINDERGARTEN SABOTAGED!
One of the staff told us that the principal and teachers who received the offer to crossover sabotaged us by purposely not teaching the students. Instead they let them play and run around the shop whilst they watch Hindi VCD movies in the other room. If they were not doing this, they would be hooking on their mobiles trying to influence parents to join their new school. Students reported that they were not given any worksheets to work on even though it has been photostatted one week earlier.
The transport operator also played their part by purposely squeezing students into small vans and reaching the center ½ - ¾ hours late to upset parents. Parents who were very upset withdrew their child from the school. Some were reported joining the new school set up by the operator. What dirty tactics! They are not even honest and brave enough to inform about their new venture. Instead they took our students by the hordes into their new premises together with our teachers to impress our students. They let our students to tour their school and inform them that all their teachers will no more be in Hijrah Kindergarten but at the new school. Students were told to inform parents to send them to the new school as Hijrah Kindergarten will be closing down. Amazing!
So when the students arrived late, the teacher not teaching, money got stolen the management got all the blame. The media only knows how to put salt on our wounds. When informed about this, they are not interested. Instead, they explode the picture of a parent who “claims” that the school owes her $3,000. She does not even have to provide documentary proof of her claim. Perhaps the BH reporter sees this as a good opportunity to blow out our weaknesses. Till this date, we are still awaiting for the parent to clarify her claim,
The media is not even sympathetic towards all our troubles and our relentless effort to accommodate all our CCK students at the new premise, after our previous landlord sold off their properties late last year, without giving ample notice to relocate. The media are not even interested to know how responsible we are towards our commitment towards the child’s continuing education. They only know how to expose thus, “Hijrah has been operating without a license since January 2007, Hijrah boss went bust and owe CPF monies” Those were things of the past, and not related to the new managment at all! They never even mention the troubles we went through making appeals after appeals to our MP’s to obtain the Temporary Permit from URA for our present premise so that all our students will not be dislocated.
The transport operator also played their part by purposely squeezing students into small vans and reaching the center ½ - ¾ hours late to upset parents. Parents who were very upset withdrew their child from the school. Some were reported joining the new school set up by the operator. What dirty tactics! They are not even honest and brave enough to inform about their new venture. Instead they took our students by the hordes into their new premises together with our teachers to impress our students. They let our students to tour their school and inform them that all their teachers will no more be in Hijrah Kindergarten but at the new school. Students were told to inform parents to send them to the new school as Hijrah Kindergarten will be closing down. Amazing!
So when the students arrived late, the teacher not teaching, money got stolen the management got all the blame. The media only knows how to put salt on our wounds. When informed about this, they are not interested. Instead, they explode the picture of a parent who “claims” that the school owes her $3,000. She does not even have to provide documentary proof of her claim. Perhaps the BH reporter sees this as a good opportunity to blow out our weaknesses. Till this date, we are still awaiting for the parent to clarify her claim,
The media is not even sympathetic towards all our troubles and our relentless effort to accommodate all our CCK students at the new premise, after our previous landlord sold off their properties late last year, without giving ample notice to relocate. The media are not even interested to know how responsible we are towards our commitment towards the child’s continuing education. They only know how to expose thus, “Hijrah has been operating without a license since January 2007, Hijrah boss went bust and owe CPF monies” Those were things of the past, and not related to the new managment at all! They never even mention the troubles we went through making appeals after appeals to our MP’s to obtain the Temporary Permit from URA for our present premise so that all our students will not be dislocated.
Alhamdulillah, finally through the appeal made by our Honourable Minister Mr Masagos Zainuddin, the appeal was granted by URA on 25 June 2007.
All these effort to ensure all our present students have a proper premise to continue their education was "marred" by the BH report " Hijrah operates the centre without a permit from URA since Janauary 2007.
Instead of commending us for being able to obtain the Temporary Permit from URA, all the BH reporter was interested in was “The landlord has issued us evacuation order to vacate the premises” Even though we had forwarded written reply, the reporter insisted on overturning our denial. Is this how the Malay media help the Malay business community to improve and survive? Is it a heavy price to pay to provide fair reporting? A little bit of endorsement with our satisfied customers would not hurt the paper’s image right? Instead, it will boost up their image. Nevertheless, throughout the BH report, there is not a single report that projects us in a positive light. Only a very minute portion of our reply was reproduced in BH reports. Even that too, they were misreported. Now we are not sure whether to co-operate with the BH reporter. We have to refer this misreporting matter to our solicitor for legal action.
BH Article
In today's article entitled " Diminta kosongkan banglo di Choa Chu Kang" BH (4/8/07) has inaccurately reported that:
"Ketika dihubungi semalam, ejen pemilik rumah itu mengesahkan bulan lalu kliennya telah mengarahkan Hijrah supaya mengosongkan banglo itu kerana ia telah dijual.
Ketika ditanya, pemilik baru Hijrah En Norman Abu Bakar, juga mengesahkannya. We append herewith copy of our fax reply to the BH reporter denying strongly his question (Please refer to the statement underlined in blue).
However, the reporter choses to say the opposite i.e En Norman Abu Bakar, juga mengesahkannya. By doing this, the BH reporter had caused a huge damage to our reputation.
"Ketika dihubungi semalam, ejen pemilik rumah itu mengesahkan bulan lalu kliennya telah mengarahkan Hijrah supaya mengosongkan banglo itu kerana ia telah dijual.
Ketika ditanya, pemilik baru Hijrah En Norman Abu Bakar, juga mengesahkannya. We append herewith copy of our fax reply to the BH reporter denying strongly his question (Please refer to the statement underlined in blue).
However, the reporter choses to say the opposite i.e En Norman Abu Bakar, juga mengesahkannya. By doing this, the BH reporter had caused a huge damage to our reputation.
MASIH MENUNGGU PULANGAN WANG SEKITAR $3,000
Berita Harian Report on 2/8/07
The Management of Hijrah Kindergarten is puzzled by Mdm Nuramiza's claimed that our school owed her $3000.
As a consequence, we received many queries from parents and members of public wanting to know how come we owe her so much? Bearing in mind our school fees is only $125 per month, which works out to $1,500 per year!
Most parents we spoke to also agree that they will never part with their $3000 in advance.
To clear our doubt, we enquired the BH reporter for some documentation but were told that the figure was quoted based on "her claims"
Readers rely on reporters to provide a true and accurate reporting. Obviously the reporter can do better by obtaining some documentary proof before putting up the story with big and colourful pictures to sensationalise the issue. In this instance, the reporter has shown that he is negligent and irresponsible. “Masih menunggu pulangan wang sekitar $3000” indicates that the figure has been verified by him. On the contrary, the reporter has never sought our clarification on this matter at all. We wonder why he chooses to write and blow out the picture without any hard evidence? As a consequence, this story has caused serious damage to our school’s reputation.
Further, there is no fair reporting by the BH reporter. We discovered that many of our points were neither reflected in his report nor was it accurate and distorted. From the fax copies, which we sent to him, we also mentioned about our concern for the children's well being after we received evacuation order by our former landlord in late 2006. Our unrelentless effort to appeal to URA to ensure that the student’s education is not disrupted, does not even receive any recognition or comment. Why was these efforts not mentioned by the reporter? We had taken all the painstaking effort to curtailed and contained the situation to prevent the situation from disintegrating and the students lost their place of study, but the reporter seems to be doing otherwise, i.e to prove that we are operating without a valid licence. Why is he only interested to portray our weaknesses? The manner the report was made clearly instill fear in our customer's mind about our honesty and viability.
Why does he not interview many other parents who are supportive and happy with our services thus far?
Subsequesntly, we also wish to know whether Mdm Nuramiza is the natural mother of Muhd Rafaeyandy bin Rahim (our student) We had strong reasons to believe that she had falsely declared that she is an aunty and also a mother to Muhd Rafaeyandy. She also falsely declared that Mr Mohd Elfie, her husband is Muhd Rafaeyandy’s natural father. The Birth Certificate of Muhd Rafaeyandy indicated that his natural mother is Suzana binte Abdul Razak and his father is Rahim. If she can make such false declaration in the Application form, it is not surprising that she can also make false claims. We have since sent Mdm Nuramiza a demand letter to prove her claim within 7 days failing which, a police report will be made against her. She had been making negative comments about our school for quite sometime now through her multiply's blog which had clearly defamed our school and we are considering legal suit against her.
The school is very cautious when making refunds. False claims made by unauthorise persons could lead to unpleasant ending. Some parents demand that we make refunds in cash or cheque to them. We had explained that it is not possible since the deduction was made through CDA. Rightfully, the money must be returned to their child's CDA account. When these demand were not acceded to, they start making threats to report us to the press etc.
Same goes to Madam Nuramiza's case. We are unable to process her refund if she could not provide clear explanation about Muhd Rafaeyandi's status.
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