kowlooner
Joined: 24 Jun 2004
Posts: 230
Location: HK, BCC (former)
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 Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2007 4:33 am Post subject: Eng Lang College shuts down |
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Looks like NOVA in Japan might be having some difficulties at present, and here in HK we have our own version. Anybody have some extra information to add to the news from today's online "The Standard"?
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Language institute shuts amid row over reimbursable courses
Winnie Chong
Saturday, September 22, 2007
One of Hong Kong's largest private English-learning schools - English Language College - has abruptly closed down after operating for 20 years.
The closure caught its 5,000 students by surprise, with staff and many students saying they had not been informed in advance.
In a statement on Friday, the college, which operated six schools across the territory and claimed to have greatly helped students without a strong language foundation, cited "operational difficulties" since reimbursable courses were deregistered from the government's Continuing Education Fund in February.
The college admitted it had failed to comply with some CEF requirements, but denied there was any wrongdoing.
It said it had relied heavily on income from CEF courses.
"Before deregistration, CEF-reimbursable courses accounted for more than 80 percent of our income and our business scale of six branches was planned with CEF-related business in mind," the college said.
"We understood it was extremely difficult, if not impossible, to continue our business after deregistration because our students needed to pay all the school fees on their own."
The college stressed that although it had tried to sustain the business by selling assets, it was still not allowed to open new CEF courses to sustain the operation.
Some students who had paid fees said they were worried about their future.
A housewife surnamed Wu said she paid HK$14,500 for a CEF course this year.
She said the closure came without any warning sign that the school was in trouble.
Wu said she would lodge a report with the police.
However, a teacher at the school, Alex Orr, said it had been paying salaries on time, and only realized it was in difficulty after CEF courses were deregistered.
The Education Bureau said it has received more than 120 inquiries from students so far, while the police said it has received 21 complaints.
Lawmaker James To Kun-sun said he had received about 30 complaints about the CEF courses.
He said the quality of some of the courses was poor and urged the office of the CEF to monitor the situation.
A Labour Department spokeswoman said employers have seven days to settle staff wages and urged employees who need help to contact the department. |
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