Why we are here The range of education options offered to learning communities today is larger than ever before - a trend predicted to continue for the foreseeable future. For the first time, a generation of children in today’s emerging global economies is experiencing a western style education, taught by western teachers using international curricula. The number of international schools in existence worldwide is thought to be between six and seven thousand. The numbers of students attending such schools is estimated to be around three million. Recent calculations put the year-on-year overall increase in numbers of international schools at 6.2 percent with eleven percent more students. At the same time, existing schools continue to receive increased number of enrollment applications and expand capacity accordingly. Two thirds of the overall international school market growth was recorded in the Middle East, with around 150,000 students attending 175 international schools in Dubai alone. There are a further 101 international schools in Doha, Qatar, and another 100 in Bangkok. It seems that the new internationally-minded approach to education has proven successful, and more local parents are looking for international school environments for their children. One of the motivators behind this sustained market growth is the changing demographic of international students. Back in 2000, eighty percent of international school students were expatriates, compared to the current figure where eighty percent of students attending international schools are children from local families, and only twenty percent are relocating children from overseas. Increasingly, each year a sizeable cohort of students from local communities become globally mobile as they seek opportunities to study in universities overseas. The most commonly cited reason for increased mobility among students is the growing supply of high school graduates whose families can afford an overseas education and the unmet demand for high-quality education at home. The international educational recruitment market has changed dramatically over recent years and the expectation is that it will change even more dramatically in the near future. The most significant of these drivers for change include more demanding customers, more aggressive competitors, and technological change. The future of international education will be inextricably linked to the future of globalisation; customer expectations are becoming increasingly sophisticated and this is set to continue. Students and their families are now much more conversant with technology; they are much more media, advertising and brand literate - and more demanding in terms of the customer care they require. Increasingly educational goods and services are being privatised, and in a highly competitive and polarised world, there has also been a significant growth in the ‘shadow education system’ – the world of private tutoring. More than half of the students in secondary school receive tutoring in countries like Japan, Mauritius and Korea. In Korea, spending on private tutoring in 1996 was half as much again as public expenditure. If current global trends continue, commercial activity in educational goods and services can be expected to grow substantially and education itself will become more ‘globalised.’ Standards for educational performance are becoming international (OECD’s Education at a Glance). At the higher level, the student body, faculty, courses and teaching provided by major universities are all being increasingly internationalised.” It is thought that students may follow six or seven different careers sequentially. In this context, life-long learning will be a necessity and this has implications in the education sector for customer service and innovative product offering. At the uptake level, schools use various methods to inform their communities on education matters; however parents may frequently encounter language and general cultural barriers that limit access. Curriculum providers all post excellent websites; nevertheless these specialist portals can appear complex in terms of language and ease of navigation. If your lives touch on international education, then you will begin to understand what kidsnschools is aiming to achieve in today’s marketplace. We recognise that a significant information gap exists between purveyors of international education programmes and consumers. That the scope and meaning of the education landscape is challenging in terms of language, sector jargon and structure. We believe that it is insufficient for parents or students to have goals in mind if they are left uncertain of the journey required to achieve them.
Posted on: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 13:14:08 +0000
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