Expat Education Woes

Max Hirsch, formerly of the Taipei Times, had an article in Newsweek on the booming English education opportunities in China and elsewhere in Asia:

But no country compares with China, which has the world's largest number of English students. In 2001, Beijing ordered that English classes start in the third grade, rather than in high school as before. In big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, such instruction now begins in grade one. And many Chinese parents try to accelerate the process by sticking their kids into English buxiban—cram schools—as early as possible. New Oriental, one company that runs such programs, says it alone has enrolled 4 million students, including 1 million last year. In total, China's English-language training market is now estimated to be worth $2.6 billion annually and to be growing at some 12 percent a year.

Driving that growth is China's rising standard of living. Middle-class parents feel intense social pressure to enroll their offspring in buxiban so they can keep pace with their peers. And the long-term benefits of English acquisition are widely touted. According to New Oriental, medium proficiency in English now gives a Chinese child an almost 25 percent salary boost when he or she enters the working world; advanced English provides a more than 70 percent boost. Of course, companies like New Oriental have a vested interest in making such arguments, but many outside experts echo them. Asians who work at multinationals but speak broken English are likely to bump up against a linguistic "glass ceiling" and be passed over for promotions. Wei Yun, a professor of English as a second language at China's Suzhou University, points to two former students who are now software engineers. The one who passed a key English exam is making double the salary of the one who failed.

The situation reminds me of the '80s in Taiwan, the go-go days for the cram school scene. Big bucks to be made out there....

Max's article also reminded of this one that I read in Newsweek's international edition on the problem of expat education in Asia in context of the region's high costs of living:

Given that local fertility rates are falling, both hubs hope to continue to fuel that boom via immigration. Singapore's Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan expects the city-state's population to hit 6.5 million by 2027, up 2 million from today—which implies a yearly influx of 100,000 foreigners over the next two decades. Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang has said he envisions his city's population eventually surpassing 10 million—a 30 percent increase from today's total—thanks to "an injection of new blood from all nationalities." As the hubs grow more receptive to outsiders, new factors are ensuring that immigrants arrive in large numbers. Whereas globalization was once confined to hefty multinationals, today's expatriates work disproportionately for smaller-and medium-size companies. Nor are they predominantly European or North America anymore; China, India and South Korea are just three of the many countries now sending professionals abroad in strength.

The impact of such influxes on Hong Kong and Singapore is now evident everywhere. Education, once an afterthought in expatriate relocations, has rapidly become a vexing issue in both cities as demand for placements outstrips supply and drives up prices. Singapore's top international school, United World College of Southeast Asia, now charges $16,500 a year for primary pupils and $20,000 for those in secondary school. Fees can run even higher in Hong Kong, where many of the 56 accredited international schools are fully enrolled. In a study released last week, the American Chamber of Commerce found that "Hong Kong's competitiveness is being negatively affected by the inability of incoming investors to find places in school for the children of their expatriate staff members, which in turn limits their ability to transfer the best and brightest people here." The Amcham study noted that combined waiting lists at five popular schools topped 1,600 in June and that schools wishing to expand faced regulation by 14 government entities. The study recommends that the government establish a "one-stop shop" for fast-tracking expansions.

The result is a booming market in debentures, which are like bonds issued by the school to raise money, giving holders preferential access. In recent years their price has shot above $100,000 for top placements in Hong Kong. The Amcham report's appendices include a letter from one U.S. expatriate who, failing to find a school for his son and daughter, moved his family to Guangzhou, where spots at the American School were open. In Singapore's case, the biggest issue is real estate. Citywide, foreigners purchased 27 percent of all private residences sold in the first quarter of 2007 and some 60 percent of those on offer at luxury developments in the Marina Bay and Orchard districts. Analysts say most of these were obtained as investments. Rents have even become a diplomatic issue. According to one European ambassador (who spoke to NEWSWEEK on condition that he not be specifically identified), "We are approaching a situation where embassy rents are no longer affordable for even the bigger countries." In one private study circulated among diplomats, rents in the downtown area that foreign missions are permitted to inhabit were shown to have tripled. "We're forced to either pay or close shop," the diplomat said. Several embassies are now considering downsizing their presence in the city-state for budgetary reasons.

Indeed, numerous commercial and residential tenants in both hubs have begun to flee districts where rents have grown too dear. In Hong Kong, companies that negotiated sweetheart commercial leases in the Central District back in 2003-04 are now leaving due to massive increases imposed on renewal and the lowest vacancy rates in two decades. In one dramatic shift, Morgan Stanley has reportedly taken options on 18 floors in the yet-to-be-finished International Commerce Center on the Kowloon side of Victoria Harbor. It and other projects have expanded the financial district beyond Hong Kong Island into territory once best known for its tourist shops and working-class housing estates.

Of course, the hardest hit aren't bankers or ambassadors, but regular people. Average Singaporeans, the majority of whom live in government-built apartments purchased at a discount, are rankled by rising sales and prices of luxury flats, which make it harder for them to afford to upgrade. In Hong Kong recently, the plight of a foreign teacher hired on a government program to teach English in local classrooms sparked a debate on the letters pages when he wrote in to say that he felt compelled to leave because he couldn't afford to send his own children to international school. Singaporean newspapers have mulled the trials of 37-year-old IT consultant Yogesh Powale, who arrived from India last year with a monthly salary of $2,650 but couldn't afford to live in the city with his wife and daughter. His solution: send the family home and rent a small room for himself.

The problem of English education is not solely an issue for the locals in Asia and in Taiwan -- every expat faces it. The local international schools are out of reach for most people here teaching English -- NT$170-240,000 a semester per child, a figure that amounts to a new car every two years. In addition to cost, I have other reservations about them which I will be happy to share over a beer. But not on a blog.

Many of the foreigners here married to locals have children in the local system, since international schools are out of the question pricewise. For them the issue becomes keeping up with the English -- expats who put their kid in the local school often watch their children's English progress slow to a crawl. That is true whether you start them in kindergarten, or whether you switch them in after years in an international school or in the US. Thus, the choice is path-dependent -- once you choose the international school system, you're stuck with it. Once they're in the Chinese system, unless you can find a way to stimulate their English, you're locked into that. Under the law international schools must have records of the child's progress for the last three years -- so if you homeschool, you must keep records somehow, or you can't switch back to the international school. For those of us here long-term, educating our children is probably the biggest frustration we have. There don't seem to be any good answers.

Our solution was to put my daughter in the local school and my son in the international school, which we did for three years. Now we homeschool him. We kept up my daughter's English by pulling her out of the school at noon and working on English stuff at home. We were able to do this because my wife works at home. Not everyone has that option.

The local American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) used to complain routinely about the international school system here. Lately it has switched to complaining that the island needs direct connections to China. One idea is that expat execs could live here, and fly easily to China. But where would their kids be educated? As AmCham was wont to point out, there aren't enough international schools here. Hong Kong has nearly sixty and it isn't enough.......

[Taiwan] [English]