Unveiling the deceptive charade: Minister informed yet silence prevails in exposing educational fraud

SHAH ALAM - Veiled for years, an unnerving stillness seemed to permeate the corridors of those tasked to safeguard the interests of Malaysia’s education as repeated bids to puncture the deceits of an illegal school peddling fake Canadian curriculum were met with deafening silence.

And within this disconcerting hush, sources revealed that Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek has received up to 14 letters -- via email -- since Dec 21, 2022; each missive, a plea from vigilant parents, seeking her intervention against the ongoing educational fraud.

Fadhlina, however, allegedly remained silent; unresponsive to the chain of emails sent to her.

The first letter, was mostly an exhaustive backgrounder on the many red flags of the Selangor-based international school with the emailer expressing shock and disbelief on how the institution was officially registered with the ministry as an Ontario Canadian International School.

This was so despite the fact that the Ontario Ministry of Education had demanded the school to remove the word “accreditation” from its official website.

“Yet the Private Education Department (PED) [of Malaysia’s Education Ministry (MOE)] registered this school as an Ontario Canadian International School,” read the first letter which was sent to Fadhlina.

To recap, Ontario has repeatedly clarified that only a single school in Malaysia was authorised to offer the Canadian International Matriculation Programme (CIMP), adding that there were only 19 international schools that do so outside of Canada.

And in Malaysia, only a single school was under the agreement with Ontario, adding that there is currently a moratorium on applicants for new international schools wishing to cut a deal with Ontario in offering CIMP outside of Canada.

Since its inception in 2020, the name of the controversial school only appeared in MOE’s database of all registered private schools in the country on Nov 2, 2022 -- nine days prior to Malaysia’s 15th General Election.

Now back to the chain letters emailed to Fadhlina.

In the sixth letter, dated Jan 10, 2023, Fadhlina was informed of the tenuous nature of the school’s student credits which -- due to the lack of accreditation from Ontario -- was essentially pointless.

“More importantly, the school’s report card credits cannot substitute neither SPM nor IGCSE accredited credits from authorised inspected lincesed schools in Malaysia which are the regulated entry requirements for any pre-university equivalent programmes,” read the letter.

The following seventh letter delved more into the school’s contentious student report cards, highlighting the minister of the peculiar workaround employed by the school in a bid to lend gravitas to its controversial student credits.

In the Jan 12, 2023 missive to Fadhlina, it was disclosed that the school’s student report cards were issued under the name of another online overseas international private school instead.

“Even if the school produces the private online school’s transcripts from Grades 1 to 11, this does not justify that the school [the former] is an Ontario Canadian International School in Malaysia.

“Therefore, the position of the school in Malaysia is a student recruitment company for the overseas private online school. This does not justify an international school status in Malaysia,” read the argument, penned in the letter.

Those familiar with the matter have shared that owners of international schools in Malaysia were required to submit the Overseas Accreditation Authority approval to the MOE in order to be officially registered as an international school in the country.

And because the contentious school lacked the needed accreditation from Ontario in order to peddle its Canadian curriculum in Malaysia, the 12the letter to Fadhlina underscored a possible breach in the Malaysian Education Act 1996.

Citing Article 84 (b) of the Act, the letter’s poser to Fadhlina centred on how the school’s red flags seemed to suggest that the controversial education institution was used or likely to be used for a purpose detrimental to the interest of Malaysia, the public or the pupils.

“This school has not been licensed by the Ontario Ministry of Education and thereby puts the students’ academy journey at risk,” read the argument written in the letter.

Last week, sources from the ministry disclosed that the school’s name was taken off the MOE’s database adding that it already had its license revoked two months ago.

However, the school continued to brazenly operate and expand its business.

Despite efforts by Sinar Daily, Fadhlina has yet to respond to our inquiry over the matter at the time of writing.