Finding suitable school for international student

Finding suitable school for international student

Martina Zainal, Contributor, Jakarta

After a house, the next major financial and emotional
investment most parents must decide on is finding the right
school for their children.

Parents who are posted to another country for employment have
the extra burden of finding an educational system available in
their host country that is most suited to their children.

Like buying a house, looking for the right school requires
investigation into its foundation (how long it has been
operating), infrastructure (what facilities it offers, where it
gets its teaching staff), and community (whether it is in a safe
environment, or teaches about local cultures).

What concerns most expat parents are the methods of teaching,
curriculum, facilities and where staff come from, said Marilyn
Ardipradja and Lynnette Johnson of Koll Relocations. Another
factor is: Does the school accept any student? The Japanese and
Korean schools, for example, are among those that only take their
own nationals, said Marilyn. The French and German schools are
among those that will take any student who speaks the language of
the school. Most English-speaking international schools,
including the British International School (BIS), Jakarta
International School (JIS) and Australian International School
(AIS), also now have a 15 percent to 20 percent local student
content.

One British mother, May (not her real name), said that when
she knew she was coming to Jakarta she looked up "schools,
Jakarta", on the Internet while she was still in Scotland. From
this, May was able to make up a list of schools she thought were
suitable.

She was lucky in that a friend who had lived in Jakarta and
had just returned to Scotland was able to give first-hand
information about the schools in Jakarta because their sons were
in the same school in Scotland. She said she chose JIS over BIS
because it was a larger school, even though BIS has the British
system May's children were used to. May said she felt that as her
children were very sociable and older she wanted them to be able
to mix a lot more with a greater variety of children.

She admitted it would probably be a problem when they
eventually moved back to Scotland but she still wanted her
children to experience the American education system because, she
said, "it treats the children as individuals and develops their
strong points, making them more independent."

"I wasn't happy with the British system in Britain anyway, so
to be able to experience another system is good," she said,
adding that it was clearer what the school expected of the
children and that the school was more prepared to direct them and
help them than their old school did. This might be a factor in
the school of your choice, too. Will you be returning to your
country of origin after your Jakarta stint, or will you be moving
to another country altogether? What will the student be faced
with after Jakarta?

Also realize that when you have your list of schools to visit,
don't just go by how they look on their Web page or in their
brochure. Of course, any school is going to try its best to look
good to prospective students. May said she also asked around when
she arrived in Jakarta, to double-check on what her friend had
said.

You should be able to speak to parents who have children in
the school of your choice: those who are involved and like-minded
about their children's educational needs. Try to e-mail them
beforehand.

Also, be sure to ask the school of your choice whether where
you live makes a difference to being accepted. JIS, for example,
Lynnette said, strictly followed its own zoning regulations with
regard to what schools your child could go to, depending on where
you lived. So, check this out with other schools as well. Traffic
in Jakarta can be horrendous -- there can be no other word for it
-- at times, so if you live too far from the school, your
children could be spending literally hours in a bus or car going
to and coming home from school.

And remember, no matter how good you think the school is that
you have picked for your child, it is still a time of major
emotional adjustment for the new student. Face the fact that
leaving home and a school full of friends and moving to a strange
country with a multicultural student body can be daunting for any
child.

Realize this and be prepared to have a mass of patience and
understanding for your child, "the new kid on the block". The
schools should also have staff that understand this and are
prepared to cope with it calmly and gently. May said it was about
two months before her children really settled in and began to
enjoy their new experience.