Pro-Teach Student Care

[JKHOR]

Hi anyones can advice or sharing about Olyumpus Student Care Centre vs PRO-TEACH (Corporation Branch)?


:thankyou:

[mum2r]

Anyone has review on ProTeach Hong Kah branch?

[pqy]

Giggler1:

Just sent my gal to the Pioneer branch and she's happy there so far

Hi Giggler, do you mind to share with me how the environment in Pioneer branch. Thought of enrol my boy in this center.

Tks in advance for your valuable feedback.

[demo4119]

Which Pro-Teach Branch in jurong west better?

[jieshi]

Hi all.  My daughter will be attending CHIJ OLN for P1 next year. I would like to share about my visit to Pro-teach, Hougang  branch which is one of the 2 student care centres (the other being My Little Professors) I have shortlisted based on recommendations in this forum. 


When I was there for my appointment on Thursday with the Principal and franchisee Ms Ho, I was surprised to see a boy and subsequently a girl answer the door. I told the girl the purpose of my visit and she opened the gate with the  keys that were given to her.

When I stepped into the centre, Ms Ho was seated there with a group of students. She told me these were her P5 and P6 students. She didn’t bring me around the centre and sat me down in front of these students and asked what I would like to know. I asked her why are the students made to answer the door. Her reply was that these students were already P5 and P6 students so they should learn to handle such situations and she has a surveillance camera at the entrance so she was able to monitor the situation. I was surprised as I definitely do not think I should be paying a student care centre to let my child speak to strangers. She shared that her teachers will be picking up the girls from school to the student care centre everyday which I thought was a plus point. I only managed to ask her another 3 questions before something really unpleasant happened.

First, I asked what is the ratio of boys to girls in the centre. Ms Ho was very invasive and immediately asked why I needed to know this and told me her parents don’t ask her this question. In a student care centre setting, you can’t control the intake and the information will vary from year to year. I told her my daughter doesn’t really like boys which is why she requested to go to an all girls’ school. I can understand that such information will change yearly so just tell me if there’s more girls or boys at this point in time. She reluctantly replied that there were more girls. 

Second, I asked her what is their intake for P1 next year. She told me 12.

Lastly, I asked students from which schools normally attend her centre. Ms Ho got very upset and asked why am I asking this question. She raised her voice and said her parents never ask her such questions and she repeated the same thing about not being to control student intake. She even said that I’m a competitor as only a competitor would ask such questions.

As the P5 and P6 students were also there while our conversation was going on, I told Ms Ho to calm down and explained that I am a genuine parent and it’s my first time sending my daughter to student care. I only wanted to know about the school mix so that I can know the environment that my daughter will be in if she enrolls. 

Ms Ho was very agitated by then and told me that I should be the one who needed to calm down. I found that very funny as she was the one raising her voice and not me. I told her again she’s the one who needs to calm down. I’m a geniune parent. She’s the one who’s making it sound like I’m asking stupid questions. Ms Ho then said most parents will bring their children along when visiting her centre that she will only believe me if I bring my daughter. I told her I couldn’t bring my daughter today as she was at her child care centre. Her reply was that even if I do have a daughter, she wouldn’t enroll her in the centre because her parent asks such questions. She stood up and said she didn’t want to talk to me anymore. She told her teacher to send me out and stormed out of the room. All these were done in front of her P5 and P6 students who by then, were all watching us and gossiping among themselves.

I was astonished and felt humiliated. As soon as I walked out, I called the head office of Pro-teach to lodge a complaint. To my surprise, the lady who picked up my call introduced herself as Peggy, CEO and Founder of Pro-teach and she told me she happened to pick up the phone as her staff was away. Peggy was very apologetic about the whole episode and told me this was the first time she heard complaints about Ms Ho. She shared that Ms Ho is a very dedicated teacher who goes all out to help her students and all her students love her. To me, it didn’t matter how great Ms Ho’s reputation was because she totally ruined it in that few mins of our meeting. As a role model, she shouldn’t have behaved like that in front of her P5 and P6 students. 

As to why this was the  first complaint she received against Ms Ho, I told Peggy that it could be that those people whom Ms Ho has displayed similar behaviour to before were all really spies sent by her competitors and so they don’t have valid reasons to lodge any complaint. I’m a genuine parent and innocent party who is seeking a place in a student care centre for my daughter and I definitely do not deserve such treatment from Ms Ho and this is the reason why I’m calling up the head office to complain especially since my integrity is at stake.

I explained to Peggy that I don’t find my questions sensitive as I had visited My Little Professors and they were able to answer these questions without problem. My questions were meant for me to make comparisons with My Little Professors whose students are majority girls and mostly from CHIJ OLN. In fact, some student care centres do reveal in their websites which primary schools their students normally come from. I couldn’t raise any ‘standard’ questions on the centre facilities/ curriculum/ programme  as I was sent out even before I could tour the centre. 

Ms Ho’s comment on wanting to see my daughter before she believes I’m not a competitor is silly. If a competitor wants to bluff his way through, he can easily find anyone to pose as his child. To easily prove that I’m a genuine parent, all that’s required is my daughter’s BC, my IC and the admission letter from CHIJ OLN which I’m prepared to provide if she asked for them politely. Also, I find her comment, that she will not enroll my child into her centre just because of the questions I’ve asked, very offensive and discriminating. By displaying such behaviour in front of her students, what message was she sending to these children? 

As a service provider, Ms Ho should address the queries of her customers and not make them feel that they shouldn’t be asking such questions. Different parents have different concerns and all the more for first time parents who don’t know what to expect. She shouldn’t restrict parents to only asking questions that’s acceptable to her. If she isn’t comfortable in revealing such information, she should give a general answer/ try to bring it over and deal with it tactfully and professionally. Peggy agreed that 1) the questions I raised were reasonable and 2) Ms Ho’s behaviour wasn’t acceptable even if she thought the other party was a competitor. She shared that she will definitely speak to Ms Ho and counsel her. She believed that something must have happened for Ms Ho to behave this way and tried to convince me that Ms Ho’s behaviour doesn’t represent the entire Pro-teach brand. However, I’m not convinced as this whole incident happened in her Hougang branch and Ms  Ho was acting in her capacity as the Principal of the Hougang branch. Hence she is representing the Pro-teach brand. Maybe Ms Ho is really a fantastic teacher, but I find her lacking in EQ and her ability to make judgements.  Peggy also tried to recommend me to her Paya Lebar branch but it was out of the question given that it wasn’t near the MRT station and it would be very difficult for me to consider Pro-teach again in light of this very unpleasant experience.

Peggy called me back after speaking to Ms Ho. Apparently, these had been recent cases of competitors pretending to be parents turning up at the Hougang branch and Ms Ho ‘firmly believes I’m one too and hence her behaviour’.  She explained that Ms Ho had thought that I had wanted specific breakdown of figures on the students based on gender and school. I told her I never asked for specific breakdowns and all I wanted  were general answers (i.e. more girls or boys/students mostly come from abc school and xyz school) as I understood that the centre profile will change as and when students join or leave. Peggy commented that Ms Ho might had become too sensitive due to her recent experiences with competitors. Still, she had already told Ms Ho that her behaviour wasn’t acceptable and she should have behaved professionally even if she believed the other party was really a competitor. Peggy assured me she will continue to work with Ms Ho to ensure this would never happen again. She kept apologizing and said she believes I’m a genuine parent and I could call up her anytime if I needed any advice on education, student care centres etc.

I felt that Ms Ho should personally apologise to me for the entire episode especially since I’m a genuine parent and she had wrongfully labelled me as a commercial spy, but it didn’t happen. As a concerned parent, I never knew that asking questions on things that I wished to know about the student care centre, a place where I would potentially place my daughter at for the next 6 years, would render me being branded as a commercial spy. As a professional working in the banking industry, my integrity is very important and I can’t believe it has been doubted just because of an individual who didn’t exercise her judgement sensibly. It has been a few days since this incident and I’m still very much affected by it - humiliated, embarrassed and aggrieved. But I guess it’s more important for me to share my experience with parents and hope that none of you have to go through the same.

[sembgal]

Hi, my experience with Paya Lebar Proteach was a good one when I visted them last year to enquire and I think I asked more questions and I feel Hougang Pro-teach childcare centre should be more professional towards dealing with public queries.

[jieshi]

Hi Sembgal, you are right. The Hougang branch needs to be more professional in dealing with enquires. Definitely did not expect that kind of behaviour from the principal cum franchisee. This is a blessing in disguise though, there’s no way I can entrust my daughter to a student care centre with a principal like that.


The Paya Lebar branch seems to be rather popular with the PLMGS girls with many positive comments in this forum. But too bad, I’m rather put off by my experience with the Hougang branch to give Pro-teach another chance.

[maltbibi]

Hi


I am looking for Proteach English worksheets and grammar notes for P2-P4 to coach my girl.

Please PM or email me at [email protected] the price and collection.

Thanks.

[Sappy]

Hi


Can someone please give me some info on how is pro teach amk at blk 617?? your advise would be greatly apprecaited. tx

[mytinyfeet]

Hi, anyone has feedback on the Pasir Ris branch?