Private education scores poorly amid rising competition

PRIVATE education institutes saw their customer satisfaction levels dip to their lowest levels in nine years. The sector scored just 64.1 points on the Singapore Management University's Institute of Service Excellence's Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG) survey, which measured customer satisfaction for various sectors for the three months ended June 30.

The score was 2.6 per cent lower compared with the same period last year and the lowest since the CSISG began tracking the sector in 2007. The last time scores dipped this low was in 2010, when private education scored 65 points.

The sector's fall in satisfaction was led by private vocational institutes. Part-time students at vocational institutes registered their dissatisfaction with service levels and gave a score of 64.7, which is down nearly 5 per cent from the same period last year. Similarly, satisfaction scores for full time students at vocational institutes dropped 1.8 per cent to 68.1 on the index.