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.