澳门六合彩

Education is increasingly becoming a global business, with high-quality international schools boasting excellent teachers and top-class facilities springing up around the world. While historically the elite educational institutes have been found in the US or the UK, increasingly Asia is becoming the place to be when it comes to education.

Home to 5,031 international schools, Asia boasts more than Europe, the Americas, Africa and Oceana combined. 鈥淎sia is a boom area,鈥� says Barnaby Sandow, Principal of Jerudong International School (JIS), a British International School in Brunei Darussalam. 鈥淲e are seeing huge expansion in the region. Increasingly that is coming from a burgeoning middle class of Asians rather than expats. They are the ones who are funding this next level of development within the market.鈥�

Sandow鈥檚 JIS is one of the top-class schools leading the Asia鈥檚 charge towards becoming the number one educational destination in the world. A boarding and day school, JIS welcomes 1,650 students from 55 nationalities, and has an academic team that consists of some 180 teachers primarily from the UK, who are supported by an administrative team of approximately 200 other staff. The school itself is situated on an expansive 120-acre campus that houses stunning facilities including an Arts Centre with fully equipped theatre, two swimming pools and a range of other top-quality sports spaces. 鈥淚 have come from outstanding schools in the UK where a child鈥檚 annual boarding fees were north of 拢35,000,鈥� says Sandow. 鈥淲e鈥檙e a fraction of that cost and the facilities here blow the socks off anywhere I鈥檝e ever seen.鈥�

Sandow is a firm believer that Asia can more than compete with the traditional elite schools in the UK. 鈥淚 get to visit a lot of international schools because of the inspection work I do and the work I do with FOBISIA [Federation of British International Schools in Asia], and it鈥檚 different gravy here to what children get at home,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he amount of investment and the amount of space means that there are so many more opportunities for the students.

鈥淭here are some excellent schools in the region. I鈥檝e just been to Dulwich in Singapore, and they have invested a huge amount. Of course the fact that it鈥檚 in Singapore means it鈥檚 a much smaller space than JIS, but it is amazing all the same.鈥�

Barnaby Sandow, Principal of Jerudong International School

It鈥檚 not just the facilities that makes the likes of JIS an attractive proposition; even something as simple as the weather can make a massive difference to the learning experience. 鈥淭his environment is extraordinary,鈥� says Sandow. 鈥淚nstead of doing your Duke of Edinburgh award in the freezing cold on a hill in Dartmoor, our kids are on a beach, in the rainforest and doing all kinds of amazing things that they would never have the opportunity to do back in the UK.鈥� Add to this the fact that Brunei is recognised by the World Health Organisation as having the cleanest air in Asia and third cleanest air in the world, and it equals the kind of learning environment that is the envy of the established elite.

Aside from the fantastic climate and superior facilities, one of the biggest plus points for international schools in Asia is the standard of teaching which, according to Sandow, has improved massively in recent years. 鈥淗istorically, teaching in international schools had a bit of a reputation for professionals not doing it for the best professional reasons 鈥� teachers thinking 鈥業鈥檒l come and live on a beach for a few years and not bother with any professional development鈥�. This lead to a high teacher turnover and in some schools a bit of a patchwork of teaching staff, with lots of different people coming and going,鈥� he explains. 鈥淏ut that鈥檚 not the case anymore. While international schools used to be populated by travellers who teach, nowadays they are increasingly populated by teachers who travel.

鈥淚 really firmly believe that this is where the most innovative and developmental teaching is happening. Aside from having the massive amount of space and the amazing facilities, the thing that makes the conditions even more conducive to innovative teaching is that the children are so well behaved. We simply don鈥檛 face the kind of classroom management issues here that teachers have to face in the UK. The Asian culture is one of respect, and everyone here benefits massively from that.鈥�

With such a variety of different schools on offer, picking the right one can be a minefield, but a good place is by making sure the school has all the relevant accreditations and kite marks. For example, JIS is accredited by the likes of British Schools Overseas (BSO) amongst many others, which means the school meets the same standards as outstanding schools in the UK. 鈥淭hese organisations keep us honest and make sure that we鈥檙e still exceeding expectations both in terms of health and safety as well as teaching standards,鈥� says Sandow. 鈥淲e invite BSO to come in and inspect every three years, which is more often than we actually need to but it proves that we鈥檙e doing what we say we can do.鈥�

Another thing to look out for when choosing a school is the staff turnover rate. 鈥淚f it鈥檚 not a great school then you鈥檒l have a very high staff turnover rate, so you鈥檒l have teachers coming in, doing their two-year contract then moving straight on,鈥� says Sandow, who has been part of the JIS team for the past 13 years. 鈥淚鈥檝e been at places in the past where the turnover rate is as high as 50 per cent, whereas here at JIS, teachers stay for an average of just under seven years 鈥� and that average is increasing here every year.鈥�

That combination of excellent facilities and a stable teaching staff means that students who attend Asia鈥檚 best international schools often go on to study at the world鈥檚 elite universities. 鈥淥ur university destinations are off the charts,鈥� Sandow states. And he鈥檚 not wrong 鈥� JIS students regularly graduate to the world鈥檚 top universities, including Oxford, Cambridge and St Andrews in the UK, University of California, Berkeley, Brown and Cornell in the US, Toronto and British Columbia in Canada and many more around the world.

These truly are exciting times for International schools in Asia, and no-one is more motivated than Sandow. 鈥淔rom my perspective as a school leader it鈥檚 a very exciting time,鈥� he beams. 鈥淎ll the conditions are there for us to produce something really special, and our challenge is to seize those opportunities and make the learning even better. Our competitors in the West are going to have to start sitting up and taking notice, because there are some new kids in town and they鈥檙e going to start shaking things up.鈥�