NZ flying school boss hits back at allegations
The head of an under-fire Palmerston North flying school is defending his reputation after being accused of negligence and assaulting students.
This week, the Manawatu Standard reported that the future of the Wings Flight Training Academy was in doubt after a damning report from the International Education Appeal Authority recommended it be suspended as an accredited education provider for six months.
Wings, which operates at Palmerston North Airport, is run by Captain Ravindra Pal Singh and takes on students from India.
The authority found student accommodation provided by Wings was not up to standard and foreign students were not looked after when they arrived in New Zealand. Authority member Anne Gambrill said Captain Singh had not provided any evidence to counter those claims.
But Captain Singh told the Standard yesterday that he was not able to respond to the authority in the timeframe required as correspondence had been sent to the wrong address.
He was, he said, the victim of a “union” of students who were failing the course and making accusations against him.
Captain Singh also said his time had been taken up trying to defend charges of assault laid against him by three students who had studied at Wings. He was defending the charges in Palmerston North District Court.
Captain Singh pointed to positive reviews, including a letter from the Ministry of Education in 2009 after Wings’ adherence to the Code of Practice for Pastoral Care of International Students was reviewed.
And this year the New Zealand Qualifications Authority conducted an audit into Wings and found the school was in good shape.
But following student complaints in September NZQA again looked at the school.
It made a number of recommendations about how Wings should be run, including removing the overseas agent, establishing more regular student evaluations, and providing a more structured course plan.
Captain Singh said he had removed the agent himself, to avoid confusion about what students understood about Wings.
This week, however, 16 students changed from Wings to Helipro for their flight training.
24/12/11 Jimmy Ellingham/Manawatu Standard/Stuff.co.nz