Expats face tough school choices

Expats in China are faced with difficult decisions when it comes to their children's education as they weigh cost-effective local schools with more familiar curriculums at international schools.

According to the Ministry of Education, as of December 2009, China had 102 officially-recognised international schools, complete with a sky-high cost package.

Ricky Hay, a native British and an English teacher, has been living with his two daughters in Beijing for four years. He can only afford local kindergartens and pays a total of 4,200 yuan (US$610) a month for his daughters’ fees at a bilingual Chinese school. There are only foreign students in their class.

“International schools cost 10 times the price of local ones and are only affordable to top foreign executives or if an employer is paying the fees,” he said. “A true international school would be over 10,000 yuan for each child a month, which is impossible for me to pay.”

Though foreigners have to pay nearly ten times as much as locals at Chinese schools, it is still cheapers than what they would have to pay at international schools.

Naomi Saunders from Yew Chung International School of Beijing, which has 670 foreign students, told the Global Times that annual tuition fees for primary and secondary school range from 157,000 yuan ($23,116) to 185,000 yuan ($27,238) and that most students have parents working in foreign companies or embassies whose salary packages cover education expenses.

Enrolling in local Chinese schools has its benefits as well. They are immersed in the local culture and language and thus, assimilate better into the new environment.

Meilin Gray, 21, has been living in China with her Chinese-American family for eight years, and went to local Chinese schools.

“There is no point (staying) in another country and (pretending) you are not there,” she said. “My family is here and my best friends are all local Chinese.”

However, some foreigners have their reservations about the level of English taught at Chinese schools. “Even at bilingual schools which provide good foreign teachers, if the other kids are all Chinese, then the English level has to be low enough for the majority to understand,” Hay said.

Some parents say that the standard of international schools is on par with colleges in the West so if they plan to settle back home in the future, sending their children to international schools would be best.

“The children will continue learning Chinese and Chinese culture because the school is in China. Only at an international school will the children learn to open up and communicate with people from all over the world,” said one foreign parent.

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