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Providing With Satisfactory Formal Education to Needful Areas and Demanding Parents

Malaysia’s pool of expatriates has given rise to the number of international schools in the country. Particularly in the capital, there are more international schools within the city, various as compared to public schools. Besides that, there are also private schools filling the gap in quality education. Malaysia’s public school curriculum has gone through several radical changes, all in the name of development. This could affect the competent society she is producing. Hence, sending children to private education is the viable option available for those who can afford it. The market is not yet saturated. If you spend plenty of time for research, there are still gaps to fill, especially for affordability. Thus, if you plan to start a private education business in Malaysia, there is no other time better than now.

 

Overclaims

Some private education institution claims to provide a high-quality, comprehensive education. Yet, many parents are complaining that private tuition is not delivering what they have promised. How true is this notion is unclear. But it is as simple as identifying where the problem stems. It could be an incompetent teacher or misunderstanding expectations of a child. Nevertheless, if you want to start a private education business in Malaysia, be sure that you can deliver the school’s vision and mission. Have a clear communication to parents of what your educators can do for their child. Otherwise, it will be stressful for you and your management committee to manage reactive parents.

 

Registered to the Ministry

As much as it is a business entity, Malaysia law requires business owners to register their private education institute with the Education Ministry of Malaysia. But, of course, you would have to set up and incorporate a company first before obtaining a license from the Ministry. Every person that will be working as an educator in your school must be registered to the Ministry. The law requires this. If found to be non-compliant, the penalty for such oversight could be RM30,000 and/or up-to two years in prison. Hence, when you start a private education business in Malaysia, be sure to do a detailed background check of your hires and potential hires.

 

The to-do List

If you are determined to start a private education business in Malaysia, give yourself some time to do the research and the list of things to do. Here is a general guideline of what you can start doing without much hassle.

• Research on Needs – You can begin researching the needs of operating a private school in areas without sufficient access to formal education. This needs analysis should also include the range of affordability from the community. Since the Ministry has made it mandatory of 6-year olds to attend primary school, such necessity begets market opportunity.
• Incorporate a Company – This goes without saying. It is necessary to make everything legal in Malaysia. Hence, choose wisely the business entity set up and obtain a business license.
• Management Team – Starting a school can be stressful, even if you come from a similar background. Get your team of experts in education, legal, accounting, business, building management, human resources and student advisor right from the start.
• Business Plan – You can initiate this or sit down with your team to set out the short term (3-5 years) plan and the long term (10 – 15 years) plan business plan for the school. The short term is necessary because the early years will be challenging as you have limited resources.
• New Campus or Utilise Ready Infrastructure – Based on the needs analysis, you would already know if you can afford a new campus or to start by using a ready structure. If you have the fortune to design a new campus, get the necessary advice from architects, educators, local authorities and obtain licenses.
• School Policy – You would need to sit down with your legal advisor as well as the principal educator to come up with this. Without it, your school can be topsy-turvy running on demands by parents instead of having a reliable reference.