Criticized at home, British schools prosper in SE Asia<\/p>\n
By Joshua Kurlantzick<\/p>\n
BANGKOK (AFP): Under fire at home, British schools are gaining
\npopularity in Southeast Asia, where they are making changes
\nschools in Britain should heed, teachers and parents have said.<\/p>\n
Over the past six months, the British school system has come
\nunder fire for perpetuating elitism and failing to adapt to
\ntrends in education, such as making classrooms more child-
\ncentered.<\/p>\n
The controversy over schools in Britain has been highlighted
\nby the Laura Spence case, in which Spence, an outstanding student
\nat a comprehensive (state-funded) school, failed to get a place
\nat Oxford but was accepted at Harvard, one of America's elite
\nuniversities.<\/p>\n
After the Spence case became public, Britain's Chancellor of
\nthe Exchequer Gordon Brown said the United Kingdom's education
\nsystem was "an absolute scandal", unable to change its
\ntraditional ways.<\/p>\n
In Southeast Asia, however, schools following a British
\ncurriculum have flourished by mixing traditional academic rigor
\nwith a willingness to incorporate local traditions.<\/p>\n
"The number of British schools, and the enrolment at these
\nschools, has grown exponentially in the past decade, as the
\nschools have innovatively adapted to their environments," said a
\nSingapore-based educational consultant.<\/p>\n
At Dulwich International School, located on the southern
\nThailand island of Phuket -- built to represent the original
\nschool in London -- enrolment has mushroomed from 76 pupils in
\n1996 to 460 in 2000.<\/p>\n
At Harrow International School Bangkok, a branch of its famous
\nBritish namesake founded in 1572, there is a waiting list for
\nplaces, headmaster Stuart Morris told AFP.<\/p>\n
Harrow International's enrolment figures have risen faster
\nthan expected, despite the fact that the school does not yet have
\na permanent campus in Thailand, said a Hong Kong-based
\nconsultant.<\/p>\n
And several renowned UK schools plan to set up franchises in
\nMalaysia within the next five years.<\/p>\n
Parents and teachers attribute the success of British
\neducation in Southeast Asia to a more relaxed approach than the
\nelitist and staid UK system, they said.<\/p>\n
"Here in Bangkok, we offer more than the UK schools. We take
\ngirls, we take day students, in order to cater to the Thai
\nmindset of wanting their children to remain close to the family,"
\nsaid Harrow deputy headmaster David Foster.<\/p>\n
In Britain, Harrow is a male-only institution and all of its
\npupils are boarders.<\/p>\n
"We try to be innovative in teaching our students about the
\nlocal communities around the schools, so they are not out of
\ntouch with daily life outside the 'ivory tower'," Foster said.<\/p>\n
"Some of the British schools in Southeast Asia seem to do a
\nbetter job than their parents in Britain at modernizing in step
\nwith the times," said one Bangkok-based educational consultant.<\/p>\n
To integrate its students with the outside community, Harrow
\nInternational encourages them to develop their own projects,
\nstudying their local environment and culture.<\/p>\n
But some educational consultants accuse British schools in
\nSoutheast Asia of overcharging for the quality of instruction
\nthey provide.<\/p>\n
"Compare the number of teachers at these Asia British-
\ncurriculum schools who have graduate degrees and ten plus years
\nof experience with the numbers at schools in the UK, and the
\nschools in Asia come out badly," said one consultant. "Yet the
\nschools in Asia charge eight to ten thousand dollars per year, an
\nexorbitant price."<\/p>",
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