When American Mareno Rathell began investigating the best way to educate his three sons he was surprised by the "outrageous prices, lack of choice and the system that is in place but does not work". The English teacher from Milwaukee wanted to send his children to an international school, but the option was beyond his reach. Some schools charge more than $20,000 per child per year.

 

 

A foreign girl studies in an international school in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. Education has become the biggest issue for expat parents.

 

"In China, we can afford to send the kids to a university but not a school; how ridiculous is that?" he says. "It costs more to send your 10-year-old to an international school here than sending your 20-year-old to Harvard in the US."

 

Rathell decided to enroll his sons -- Zevi, 10, Rashi, 14, and Ari, 16 -- in Chinese public schools but discovered the schools refused to accept foreigners, even though his children speak Chinese. "I believe my kids could only benefit from such an experience, education-wise and culture-wise," he says. Out of options, Rathell is now home-schooling his sons. "Home-schooling is very challenging, because it is hard to be a family and an educational institution at the same time," he says.

 

American Kimberly Wills was also disappointed to find she couldn't afford international school tuition when she moved to Beijing last year to work as a private tutor. The New Jersey woman also started home-schooling her son and also found it difficult. "I think because we've had these other priorities in our first month, we haven't really been focusing on school," the 35-year-old single mother told China Daily. "So far, it's been like: 'you know, you have to start doing some schoolwork soon'. 'I know'. And that's about as far as it's gotten."

 

In addition to finding it difficult to obtain teaching materials, she was concerned about her son's social life.

 

"We find that expat parents are concerned that their child may be missing out on the social element of traditional schooling," says Rod Clarkson, CEO of the online Excel High School.

 

Even those who get their children into Chinese public schools have concerns about their education.

 

"I have spent many sleepless nights since we moved to China wondering if I didn't totally disturb my son's education," says Bulgarian Lydia Zhivkova Georgieva. Still, the 42-year-old considers her son's time in Chinese public school "quite valuable".

 

Her 16-year-old son Todor Georgiev Argirov is now in his seventh year of education in China. Upon their arrival, the single mother found international schools unaffordable. When Todor began at a primary school affiliated with Nanchang University, in Jiangxi Province, in 2000, the language barrier pushed him back from fourth to second grade. However, he quickly caught up and believes that today, he is better for it.

 

"Overall, the education level in Chinese schools is much higher in every area, be it sciences, humanities or literature," he says, adding that competitive environment pushed him to excel. The greatest advantage, he says, was he learned Chinese and passed the Level 8 HSK with an A grade within three years.

 

"Studying Chinese in an environment where Chinese is the only way one can possibly communicate does wonders to a foreign kid's Chinese skills," he says.

 

The major disadvantage was what Chinese call "duck-feeding education". "This means that the students are fed knowledge by the teachers, without the ability to question or doubt that knowledge," he says.

 

He was able to learn about Chinese culture and make friends, but while his classmates came to accept him as an equal, the school he attended after moving to Qingdao in 2002 treated foreign students differently.

 

"I could leave school two to three hours before dismissal every single day; it was just a matter of whether or not I wanted to," he says.

 

Today, Todor is taking an International Baccalaureate program at Beijing World Youth Academy, where his mother now works. "International school education is focused more on developing our creative side, as opposed to our ability to accept and memorize knowledge for an exam," he says.

 

According to John Turner, Ningbo International School (NIS) principal, creative teaching in addition to a multicultural setting, is one of the major appeals of international school education.

 

"Some people don't have a company that'll pay their fees, and they'll have to enroll their kids in a public Chinese school where they'll be tested into oblivion and put in an environment that is not at pace with progressive thoughts on how children learn," Turner says.

 

He explains the reason international schools are so expensive is that they must pay higher overheads and salaries to attract qualified teachers from abroad. Because NIS teaches an Australian curriculum, it mostly hires Australian instructors. Turner says most of these instructors "have commitments back home", such as loans and mortgages.

 

"If they get paid a local wage, they just don't have the money to pay those commitments," he says.

 

Because Ningbo's cost of living was lower than most major Chinese cities, he says the school would usually pay about 70 percent of the average Australian teacher's salary, or 35,000 yuan ($4,584) per month -- far less than international schools in Beijing and Shanghai. 

 

And at 48,000 yuan ($6,286) to 78,000 yuan ($10,215) per year, NIS' tuition is among the cheapest.

 

He also points out that international schools must generate profit. "They're run by companies, and the purpose of a company is to make money," he says. "International schools have to turn over a return for their investors."

 

Communications director of the International School of Beijing (ISB) Lance Witte says teacher salaries are being driven up by a global shortage. The school seeks teachers with at least five years' teaching experience -- at least three of which would be international - and graduate-level educations.

 

ISB's annual tuition ranges from $17,670 for kindergarteners to $22,810 for 12th graders, before additional fees.

 

"Most of our students come from large corporation backgrounds and also embassies," Witte says. "Most of our parents are with companies that are funding their education."

 

The first choice for most foreigners hoping to enroll their children in Chinese public schools is Beijing No 55 middle school, which was authorized by late President Zhou Enlai as the first Chinese school to accept foreign students.

 

Today, the school's 380 foreign students -- mostly American and Korean -- are divided into different classes depending on their Chinese levels and whether they plan to attend Chinese or foreign universities.

 

Wang says the school receives twice as many applications as it could accept and is expanding its facilities to accommodate up to 600 foreign students.

 

Having seen the best and worst of both worlds, Todor and his mother recommend newly arrived expats enroll their children in Chinese schools for the first year or two and then move on to international schools, if possible.

 

"After their Chinese is fluent, international school is a very good option because it offers much more opportunities for later education than Chinese schools, and it also complements Chinese school education with the notion of creativity and individualism," Todor says.

 

(China Daily June 15, 2007)