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.
