Education is serious business in Singapore - just ask any child.

Singapore, no bigger than one twentieth of Beijing in area, attracts a large number of overseas students. To date, there are more than 30,000 Chinese students seeking study there.

And even the Singapore mathematics syllabus has been internationally recognized for its effectiveness and adopted by some schools in the United States.

Singapore companies in the education field are leveraging this national reputation for educational excellence as they expand into the region.

The companies are able to provide solutions on almost all levels, from university degrees to preschool, with educational support services, student care, curriculum planning and regional consultancy.

Many of these companies are from the private sector, and have found their niche in Singapore by creating educational offerings that are not covered by Singapore's state-funded education system.

While not mandatory, the government through SPRING Singapore has developed centralized quality control for private companies in the educational field.

Called the Singapore Quality Class for Private Education Organizations, certificate holders have had to demonstrate that they meet certain requirements regarding classroom sizes, certification and facilities.

Companies in the education sector aim to deliver high quality education while being a viable business.

Honing their skills in the competitive Singapore environment, they are all ready to tackle markets overseas.

One of a select group that provides tertiary education alternatives to Singapore's state-funded universities, Raffles Education Corporation is spreading its wings into the region, with 17 colleges set up across the Asia Pacific.

Apart from its advantageous courses in design and business management education, the group also offers diplomas and degrees.

It adopts the same stringent standards and processes to ensure a consistently high quality of education across all their colleges.

This includes teaching in English as well, even in countries where it is not widely spoken. According to Chew Hua Seng, Chairman and CEO of the corporation, this is so that students "will have wider job opportunities, including working for international companies in their own countries or overseas."

Another Singapore-based undergraduate programme provider the Stansfield Group offers external degree programmes and opens colleges in Singapore, China and India.

Its ultimate aim is to create a regional chain of colleges around Asia so that students can easily move between these different colleges.

Michael Cope, deputy chief learning officer for Singapore Institute of Commerce, said: "The students can do their first year in China, their second in India and their third in Singapore. We want to provide students with more than the degree. We want to also add value by offering more overseas exposure."

What all these companies have in common is that they have all cut their teeth in Singapore. They developed programmes and expertise serving the demanding Singapore market.

Naturally, it is not just a simple matter of transferring the Singapore experience wholesale. Localization is needed to create programmes that are relevant to local conditions. For example, iT21, a developer of multimedia educational courseware, is heavily involved in localizing their courseware for the school curriculums in different countries.

To increase speed-to-market, and to minimize risk, companies in Singapore have gone into joint-ventures or even taken the franchising route.

(China Daily 08/09/2005 page1)