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Choosing an International School
By Kevin Bartlett ( original article in www.expatexchange.com !)
The business of international education
The origin of international education was largely pragmatic. With the post-war growth of an expatriate workforce, the need arose for English-medium schools in cities around the world.
Today, the business of international education is booming. With increasing numbers of globally mobile families, there are currently over 1000 international schools worldwide, with numbers continuing to rise by about 6 percent a year. Make no mistake, international education is a growth industry with a global annual revenue of over 4 billion US dollars.
Balancing idealism and pragmatism
Business is booming, and that means international schools increasingly have to be business-like. That is to say, whilst the majority of international schools are non-profit organizations, governed by volunteer Boards, they still have to balance their books. Costs are often high and schools rely on tuition fees, rarely receiving subsidies from host country governments.
Increasing numbers of schools in many cities also means greater competition for students. Marketing plans and sales forecasts are therefore as commonplace in schools as in any other company. There is also competition to recruit top quality staff, from an increasingly savvy "pool" of teachers, used to shopping around for the most attractive locations and/or compensation and benefits packages.
At the same time, however, the business of international education is not centrally about making the books balance. International schools have, from the outset, been dedicated to the challenge of developing educated, ethical, empathetic individuals, capable of "making a difference" in future society. .......
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