Wasted Education

My friend and I were reading through Jeff Ooi's archive and we found a story on LimKokWing. HAving only spent 3 months in a private college (the sum of my private education), I am not able to comment too much, though from what I hear from college students of private institutions, the Education Ministry has failed in regulating the setting up of colleges, accreditation of the institutions and even in checking on the quality of the teaching staff, facilities, internal examinations and course contents. I have attended an interview for a job as a lecturer with a private college. They put me through some role-playing, by having me present a short lecture to a 'class' that consists of my interviewers. They seem impressed enough and I was shortlisted for an interview with the MD. That was where I met my Waterloo. Firstly, he thought my asking price was too high (due to my youth and my lack of consistent full-time work experience. Apparently, my past part time teaching experience and other related work experiences do not count) and from the way the interview went, I had a feeling that he was more interested in how much he could milk out of me for minimal pay. I was pretty appalled that the lecturers who were more senior than me were paid less than my asking price, which I felt was it was in a fair range (=RM2500) based on my past experiences and the amount of responsibilities I have to take on if I was to be given the post.

While waiting for that interview with the college's MD, I chatted with a fellow interviewee, whose idea of teaching college was teaching a tuition class (I wonder if she got the job), but I guess they must be impressed enough (or desperate enough) to pass her on for the second interview.

Anyhow, throughout the final interview, the MD seemed less interested in my teaching capabilities and how I could contribute to the students' and college's educational achievements (as to whether it existed or was I faking it) than how much he could pay me and all the roles that I was to assume as a "team-player" in a "corporate"-like environment. Needless to say, I never got the job.

While I would never deny the fact that many of the lecturers who decided to take up lecturing despite of the bad pay (though if you are some acclaimed professor from a public university, you can go in for a good position and higher pay. It is all about publicity) do it for the love, there are many others who do this job because no one in the industry or anywhere else would hire them. It is the second breed that we should be most concerned with, as there are more of them in private colleges, than the first breed. And also with the money grasping directors of colleges. What can one do when share-holders are more interested in profit margins than quality of education? After all, they see such ventures as a business, regardless of whose lives such ventures would affect.