International boarding school education considered ‘first class’
KOTA KINABALU: The United Kingdom Education Advisory Service (UKEAS) aims to shed more light on the value of international boarding school education to Sabahans.
“We hope to educate the public on the value of a boarding school education and how it is considered as a ‘first class’ type of education.
“We hope to give them a platform to learn more about the boarding school system in a safe and informative way.
“We do not want them to just simply apply here and there without knowing what they would be getting,” said its managing director Liv Sarah Thun when met at the UKEAS Annual International Boarding School Fair at a hotel here yesterday.
“This is UKEAS’ first-ever international boarding school event that features schools from the UK, the USA and New Zealand. There are 11 schools featured at the event here today,” she said.
She said the 11 selected schools were all fantastic in their academics and pastoral care.
“It is like being away from home but in a very secure environment, where the students are able to improve academically. It is very different from universities,” she explained.
Principals and officers of each of the schools were present at the event to give parents a better understanding of the value of the boarding school education.
Previously, UKEAS had organised two boarding school fairs, but it only featured schools from the UK.
“The response for our first two fairs was fantastic, that is why our numbers have grown from five to 11 schools. So we have doubled in one year’s time,” said Liv.
Around 40 students have signed up for boarding schools through UKEAS as of last year.
“We don’t really want to work based on numbers. We just want more international boarding schools to know more about the existence of Sabah as a lot of them do not know about us.
“This is a good way for the schools to learn more about the Malaysian students… we know more about that rather than the numbers,” she said.