The Council for Private Education (CPE) on Tuesday announced that it has launched a survey to find out how Singaporeans rate private schools. Besides asking parents and students what they think of private schools including the facilities they offer and their teachers, the graduates will be asked if they faced discrimination when seeking a job and if they were paid the same salaries as their peers coming from the public institutions.

Employers will be asked how private school graduates compare with those coming from the publicly-funded polytechnics and universities. Altogether some 2,000 people will be surveyed for the study which will be completed in the third quarter of this year. CPE's chief executive Brandon Lee said the council which regulates the private schools will use the findings to plan how quality can be improved in the sector.

Mr Lee who spoke at the private education conference on Tuesday said more institutions were winning the quality EduTrust mark, which is requirement to enrol international students. At the end of last year, 115 of the 332 registered schools had won the mark, compared to 94 the year before.

Ms Indranee Rajah, Senior Minister of State for Education who gave the opening address at the conference on Tuesday said the new rules introduced three years was aimed at providing basic protection for students and raising the quality of schools to meet minimum standards in their academic processes and corporate governance.

But she said going forward real quality improvements can only be achieved by looking at student outcomes.