Parents, schools instilling global outlook

A younger generation of parents, who are well-educated and with global perspectives, are fueling the insatiable appetite for quality international education in China, according to a senior industry executive.

“Chinese parents are obsessed about education, something that is based in the culture,” said Jeff Zhu, vice-president of Shanghai-based Dipont Education Management Group. “It has always been perceived as the main, if not the only, ladder, for the elevation of social status.”

But he noted how a more cosmopolitan parent group are shifting from “learn English” to “learn in English”, because they aspire for their children to one day participate in world affairs as future world leaders.

“They are the future leaders of the world because China is a world power. They must be well versed in Chinese culture, while at the same time, understand the world to a much deeper level compared with previous generations,” Zhu said.

Dipont set out as a consultancy dealing with overseas college applications in the 1990s. But later it steered toward introducing international courses, like A-Level, AP and IB, in high schools, thanks to a regulatory greenlight in 2003 allowing Chinese public schools to run a foreign curriculum.

After observing that even the most successful applicants to foreign universities could struggle with moving abroad, Zhu and his staff aimed to ease the transition. They contemplated the differences between Chinese and Western education, and sought to prepare students culturally, socially and academically before leaving China to become a global citizen.