问答题

There has been a boom in such “international schools”since 1979, which teach in English in non-Anglophone countries, mostly offering British A-levels, American APs and SATs, or the International Baccalaureate. During the past quarter-century, according to the International School Consultancy Group (ISC), their number has grown from under 1,000 to more than 7,300. In the 2013-14 academic year they generated $41.6 billion in revenue and taught 3.75m pupils globally. (46) Twenty-two countries have more than 100 international schools headed by the United Arab Emirates, with 478, and China, with 445.

But nowadays international schools increasingly belie their name. Though their clientele varies from place to place,four-fifths of the pupils they teach around the world are locals. Thirty years ago, just a fifth were. The main reason is increased demand for schooling mostly or entirely in English, both in rich countries, and even more from rich parents in developing countries.

(47) This new elite can outspend even very highly paid foreign managers – and multinationals trying to cut costs are ever less willing to pay school fees.Locals are more appealing clients, too: their children tend to stay for their entire schooling, unlike “expat brats”, who are always moving on, leaving seats to be filled. And a parent-teacher association packed with the local elite is more help with bolshie bureaucrats than one full of foreigners.

Further growth is on the cards. The biggest growth is forecast in the Middle East and East Asia. But which countries prove the most rewarding for investors depends partly on governments. (48) Some countries make it hard for those who have been schooled outside the national system to get into university, meaning international-school customers risk closing off their children‘s future options. Chinese pupils without a foreign passport are barred from international schools. Singaporean citizens require government permission to attend international schools, rarely granted unless they have lived abroad.

Malaysia‘s experience shows what would happen if any of these were to relax their rules. (49) In 2012 it removed a 40% cap on the share of international schools‘ pupils allowed to be locals partly to encourage the expansion of a sector seen as important in attracting foreign investment and partly to please parents who were becoming ever less willing to send their children to boarding schools overseas. In just two years the number of locals at the country‘s international schools has risen by a third, and Malaysians now account for more than half their pupils.

A natural next step would be for the firm to start training Chinese teachers in foreign teaching methods. “Like anything in China, it‘s about localizing,” Vanessa Cumbers, Dipont‘s director of recruitment says. (50) That prescription may make for less diverse class reunions, but it is ensuring the rude health of international schools everywhere.