PRIVATE EDUCATION: LOCAL INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS PUNCHING ABOVE THEIR WEIGHT?

It’s the beginning of October and the summer holidays are definitely over as my nieces and nephew have headed back to their boarding schools in England. My own son is still too young to be sent away, so he will have to make do with a local international school here in Bangkok.

It used to be and still is probably true that an overseas education is a status symbol for both parents and kids. A degree from well-known universities in the US or UK still opens many doors at job interviews.

But increasingly, getting into the top schools and universities, especially in the US, is becoming much more competitive and it’s not just about the affordability of school fees any more. Although only 8% of parents in Britain can afford to send their children to public schools (which are called private/independent by the rest of the world), demand from overseas students has been rising at a steady rate.

The latest status symbol for wellheeled jet-setters is no longer a big mansion or a racing yacht but to which Ivy League or Oxbridge university your child was accepted. In China, the onechild policy has inadvertently created another problem for many wealthy Chinese couples with spoiled princes.

Now that China has come of age with the wealth to match, as witnessed recently by the G20 extravaganza in Hangzhou, many of these privileged kids are no longer educated locally but are being sent abroad in droves to attend American and British high schools and universities.

As a result the demand for places at these boarding schools has outstripped supply by a significant margin, with an admission rate as low as 5% at some of the most prestigious schools.

Thankfully for me, the concept of international schools in Bangkok is no longer an experiment for British independent schools overseas. My son is in his third year at Harrow International School Bangkok. It is now a secondgeneration school with almost 20 years of experience behind it, with sons and daughters of former students enrolling there.

Moreover, from an academic point of view, the tail is wagging the dog. Last year more than half of all A levels and two-thirds of all IGCSEs sat by Harrow International students resulted in A* or A grades, which compared favourably with some of the best UK independent schools.

I am sure when the governors of Harrow on the Hill in London started out with this international franchise 20 years ago, they could not imagine how successful the ventures would be. Now the Harrow boys in London have to compete against the creme de la creme from satellite campuses in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai.

Admittedly, Harrow International School Bangkok does not enjoy the same pedigree and history as Harrow on the Hill in London. It was founded in 1572 under a royal charter granted by Queen Elizabeth I, and produced seven British prime ministers and the first prime minister of India.

But funnily enough the Bangkok campus is more English than the London one in a quaint sort of way. It is rather entertaining to see children wearing boaters (straw hats) and blazers with lion crests on their breast pockets walking about in the stifling heat of Bangkok.

Meanwhile, my niece is starting out in the lower sixth form at Cheltenham Ladies College (CLC) in England with nine A* and one A IGCSEs under her belt. So the debate in the family right now is whether she achieved these stellar exam results because of her own perseverance and hard work or the superior coaching at CLC, or a combination of both.

This is something for parents with high school-bound children to ponder: whether to send their children abroad at an early age or stick with local international schools until they are university-bound.

Expense plays a factor. Good education does not come cheap even for local international schools. Qualified teachers have to be headhunted from abroad, while all the sport activities such as swimming, golf, etc. require heavy funding. However, the all-in fees of most international schools in Bangkok are a third of the leading schools in the UK and US.

Apart from the cost/benefit analysis, the bottom line is you need to groom your kids to be all-rounders. Good grades are essential to get into prestigious universities but other qualities such as interpersonal skills, sportsmanship and extra-curricular activities also matter. Parents can arguably have a better chance at influencing their kids on these qualities if they are educated locally. It all adds up to a tough decision to send them away to school now or later.