When Exploding Demand Is A Challenge
Kuala Lumpur--This item from yesterday's South China Morning Post, plus another from the New Straits Times last May, illustrates the explosive demand for international education in East and Southeast Asia. What is notable about the escalating demand is that it comes mainly from in-country nationals, rather than expats, the traditional source of students in the sector.
As one would expect, a plethora of new schools are opening from Beijing to Bangkok and from Yangon to Jakarta, most operated by entrepreneurs in the for-profit sector. What makes these developments challenging for conventional expat-focused international schools is an increasing dilution of brand. Can a school be truly "international" and be 95-100% local students? If so, that dilutes the branding of schools that may hosty 50-60 nationalities of students, the same way that the label "Montessori" can be used to describe almost any sort of curriculum, given that their are no legal protections to the name.
Maybe it is time, at least in this region, for a new round of attempts to define an authentic international education, and find ways through accreditation and standards to "own" the authenticity if not the international part.