Aristocare
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\"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. -
Lynn2010:
He can still write that book and be a very good teacher. One does not have to be a GEP student or/and GEP teacher to be a good teacher. But he chooses to lie. His lie will wipe out all his strengths....what's a waste! He has lied to charge high price...this tells a lot of his integrity!It's a pity. His book \"Exam Smart - Maths methods\" is quite good.
Or.... perhaps....... he paid someone to write & put his name -
alng:
Agree. You dont have to be a GEP student or GEP teacher to be a good teacher!!
He can still write that book and be a very good teacher. One does not have to be a GEP student or/and GEP teacher to be a good teacher. But he chooses to lie. His lie will wipe out all his strengths....what's a waste! He has lied to charge high price...this tells a lot of his integrity!Lynn2010:
It's a pity. His book \"Exam Smart - Maths methods\" is quite good.
Or.... perhaps....... he paid someone to write & put his name
Perhaps he's trying to be different, giving himself a unique \"branding\" -
He knows there are parents who’ll do anything to get their kids into GEP so he figures he can make a lot of money off them. If the parents weren’t that desperate, he would have no biz. Makes me wonder if Dr Peh is at fault for calling his tuition centre Dr Peh when he is just a Mr Peh. Hhmmm…
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'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\")
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. -
jtoh:
He knows there are parents who'll do anything to get their kids into GEP so he figures he can make a lot of money off them. If the parents weren't that desperate, he would have no biz. Makes me wonder if Dr Peh is at fault for calling his tuition centre Dr Peh when he is just a Mr Peh. Hhmmm....
If only MOE banned all these GEP training centres and the parents just let the children be; if they are gifted, so are they and no need special training to be gifted.
This way, MOE will really get those really gifted ones and not those who are trained to be gifted...... -
Lynn2010:
I agree. But if MOE bans them, they'll just go underground and the kiasu parents will all go underground to locate them too. When there's desperate demand, biz will find a way to fulfil that demand. Easy money.jtoh:
He knows there are parents who'll do anything to get their kids into GEP so he figures he can make a lot of money off them. If the parents weren't that desperate, he would have no biz. Makes me wonder if Dr Peh is at fault for calling his tuition centre Dr Peh when he is just a Mr Peh. Hhmmm....
If only MOE banned all these GEP training centres and the parents just let the children be; if they are gifted, so are they and no need special training to be gifted.
This way, MOE will really get those really gifted ones and not those who are trained to be gifted...... -
How do they actually ‘train’ the kids? IQ can’t be trained !
Actually, it’s cheaper to just send kids for IQ test than to pay such ridiculous high fees.
If found to be gifted through IQ test, then confirmed no need training.
If found to be not gifted, time to give up, no need to waste money on training either. 对吗? -
sleepy:
But there are parents who cannot accept that their kids are not gifted, so if tested that their kids do not have high IQ, they will try their very best to increase their IQ.How do they actually 'train' the kids? IQ can't be trained !
Actually, it's cheaper to just send kids for IQ test than to pay such ridiculous high fees.
If found to be gifted through IQ test, then confirmed no need training.
If found to be not gifted, time to give up, no need to waste money on training either. 对吗? -
alng:
Oh, living in denial...
But there are parents who cannot accept that their kids are not gifted, so if tested that their kids do not have high IQ, they will try their very best to increase their IQ.
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