Aristocare

[Zeng]

His website states success rates of 100% and 80% for both stages of GEP screening/selection tests.


This is quite an astounding success figure. Not clear whether this refers to those who have 1 year of prep ($13k to $15K) or those who go for 2 day crash course ($1.6K). With this kind of odds, surely a number of people will buy into this.

[jtoh]

Zeng:

His website states success rates of 100% and 80% for both stages of GEP screening/selection tests.


This is quite an astounding success figure. Not clear whether this refers to those who have 1 year of prep ($13k to $15K) or those who go for 2 day crash course ($1.6K). With this kind of odds, surely a number of people will buy into this.

His figures are based on what his mother tells him lah. :rotflmao:

[Liarliarpantsonfire]

\"Private tutor who charges high fees: I was in gifted education programme. MOE says : No He Wasn't.\" 29 July 2012, article by Jane Ng, Sunday Times


A private tutor charging high fees to help children get into the Gifted Education Programme (GEP) has been warned to stop telling lies about himself. Mr Kelvin Ong Wee Loong, 36, has longclaimed that he was admitted into the gifted programme as a child and went on to be a teacher in the programme as well.

Now the Education Ministry has refuted those claims, saying it has checked and found no record that he was ever a pupil or teacher in the programme. Nor is he even a qualified teacher. The ministry has told him to remove the lies from the website of his AristoCare centre, and he has complied.

Mr Ong, who handpicks children for his sessions and charges $1,000 for four lessons, had previously told The Sunday Times that he was in the gifted programme at Anglo-Chinese School (Primary). In media interviews as far back as 2007, he also said that he used to be a teacher in the programme.

The ministry decided to check after Mr Ong appeared in The Sunday Times on June 3 in a story about parents sending children for costly tuition to prepare them for the gifted programme selection tests. A ministry spokesman said: 'Based on MOE's records, Mr Kelvin Ong was neither a student in the GEP nor a GEP teacher. MOE has spoken to Mr Kelvin Ong on the matter, and warned him against making such false claims again.' It also checked but could not find any record of Mr Ong's teaching qualifications.

This is not the first time that the ministry has taken issue with Mr Ong.
In 2010, it was alerted to AristoCare's website after it advertised the sale of the 2009 GEP Screening and Selection Test papers. The ministry checked and found that those were not the actual papers. It subsequently alerted parents that there was a website giving the impression that it had past GEP papers for sale, but they were not genuine.

It is not known if he will face further action.

Asked what he had to say about the ministry's latest checks, Mr Ong told The Sunday Times it was his mother who had told him that he had been in the gifted programme.'I'm not very sure. According to my mum, I was from GEP. When MOE called me, I tried to check but couldn't because I don't have records from the past,' he said.

He said he attended Clementi Town Primary from Primary 1 to 3 before transferring to ACS (Primary) in Primary 4.The primary gifted programme starts at Primary 4, and ACS (Primary) is one of the schools offering it.
Mr Ong said he went on to ACS (Barker Road) and Anglo-Chinese Junior College, before studying mathematics at the National University of Singapore. As for being a teacher of gifted pupils, he now claims that he was a relief teacher for two years from 2002 to 2003 at ACS (Primary) and 'helped out' with the gifted classes.

But this has been disputed by the school. After checking the school records and speaking to long-time staff, ACS (Primary) vice-principal Grace Khoo told The Sunday Times: 'Kelvin Ong was not a pupil of ACS (Primary) - GEP or otherwise. Neither has he taught in the school (GEP or non-GEP).
'All the long-serving teachers in the school say there was never a Kelvin Ong who taught here as a relief teacher.'

The parents of at least two children have also asked him to remove from his website 'testimonials' purportedly coming from their children saying they had done well in the Maths Olympiad after attending his sessions, and would recommend others to join.The parents said their children never wrote any such thing.

Mr Ong has cleaned up that bit of his website too. He also no longer claims to have been a teacher in the gifted programme.
'Please say that I'm a GEP trainer, not GEP teacher,' he said.

[Liarliarpantsonfire]

'Gifted' private tutor told by MOE to stop lying

AsiaOne
Sunday, Jul 29, 2012

http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20120729-362053.html

http://news.asiaone.com/A1MEDIA/news/07Jul12/others/20120729.143758_aristocare.jpg\">

SINGAPORE - A private tutor claiming to be from the Gifted Education Programme (GEP) in order to charge high fees for his services has been warned by the Ministry of Education (MOE) to stop telling lies.

Mr Kelvin Ong Wee Loong, who is the owner of AristoCare centre and charges $1,000 for four lessons, also claimed that he went on to attend Anglo-Chinese Junior College and the National University of Singapore, before become a teacher in the GEP programme at his alma mater.

However, checks conducted by MOE revealed that Mr Ong was neither ever a pupil nor teacher in the programme. He is also not a qualified teacher.

Mr Ong was not even a pupil of ACS (Primary), further checks conducted by the school showed.

In response to the revelations, Mr Ong said it was his mother who told him that he was from the gifted programme and he could not verify it because he does not the records from the past.

He has since cleaned up his website and now claims that he was a relief teacher at ACS (Primary) from 2002 to 2003 and 'helped out' with the gifted classes.

However, this too is being disputed by the school, which said that a check with all its long-serving teachers revealed that there was never a Kelvin Ong who taught there as a relief teacher.

This is not the first time Mr Ong has faced allegations of misleading claims.

Two parents have asked him to remove positive testimonials supposedly written by their children, saying that their children never wrote them.

In 2010, Mr Ong also got into hot water with MOE for selling fake 2009 GEP Screening and Selection Test papers.

[Flowermonaster]

Liarliarpantsonfire:

Dear Moderator,


Please do not delete this thread. Enough Parents have been conned by this fraud. Please let the world know his name and face and let there be no more. Hope parents will now check all their tutor education certificates and back story before we entrust our children in their hands.

Just curious, are you a victim?

[fightingmom]

FYI


The moderator did not delete your earlier posts. They are merged into here:

http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=38592&start=20

The above thread was already created before you. Please post all comments there in future.

[auntieM]

.. ..amazing he can 'survive' so many years lying.. :mad:

[sleepy]

He's not that smart le. Why bother telling lies that can be easily found out?


That reporter is sharp. A quick check with ACS and MOE and he blew his cover :lightrod:

[onemore]

Surprise that this con artiste is still happily operating as usual….nothing wrong to be deceitful and cheats?? :mad:

[Zeng]

onemore:

Surprise that this con artiste is still happily operating as usual….nothing wrong to be deceitful and cheats?? :mad:

Whether he is providing value for the amount of money charged probably has to be determined by the parents who buy his services.

With questions raised on his integrity, one is not sure about the other claims made on the website (such as success rate, success stories etc)

For the benefit of many others, perhaps the reporter can investigate and others can help to verify (other than asking his mother??).