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Discussion topic: Is your destiny in the international school community?

Are you thinking about starting in the international school community?  Do you know what you are really getting yourself into?  It is hard to know if you don’t have friends already in the International School Community.

We would like to highlight a blog entry from the T Tech Tips’ blog. This international school educator provides some great insight to the real lives of international school teachers and the decisions that we are faced with as we move around the world from school to school.

“It’s that time of year again in the international education world of contracts, decisions, and thinking about your future. Kim Cofino has a great post about finding the right fit…the right school. Whether you are an international educator or not it’s worth a read.  International Teachers are different…we’re weird….we don’t like stability, we like change and challenge. We like travel, culture and to be honest I think we all like just being different. If you’ve met an international educator you’ll know what I’m talking about. Countries, airports, and airlines are just common conversation.

“But that’s us…..we live on year by year contracts, don’t try to make us sign a multi-year deal….cause that’s a deal breaker in itself (part of the reason we left Shanghai). We’re renegades, we’re individuals, and nobody is going to tell us where we’re going to live or that we can’t leave….cause we will just to prove you wrong. Yeah….International Educators are different. We expect open bars at conferences. We expect conferences to be in amazing locations. Borneo, Bangkok, Greece, Shanghai, Singapore, Egypt, Nice, etc. Yeah…..international conferences are rough.”

It is true that we (international school educators) are strange.  Most people’s families don’t lead lives like us.  My relatives all either live in the same city as each other or the city next to that city.  He is right in saying that we are living a wonderful live when the expectation is that we are sent to conferences in international locations around the world; that does not happen to teachers teaching in the public school system in the United States.  There was just a PYP conference in Malta and an ECIS conference in Lisbon this past October.  Many teachers from my school were attendees!

“And then there is the friendships you create. Deep meaningful friendships with people who become your family. My best friends little brother, who I’ve known since he was in 6th grade graduated from University as an elementary teacher and decided to try out the international teaching thing. His first posting has been Kuwait where he’s in his second year, meaning that he’s now having to decide whether to stay another year or decide if it’s time to move on. He wrote a blog post, a couple lately actually, talking about his decision and how attached one becomes to friends, a country and these amazing kids we have the honor of teaching. Some very reflective blog posts from a young teacher trying to figure out life, education, and the meaning of it all.”

It is tough to leave friends and your host country of 2-3 years. It is important to note forget the students that you will miss.  Not necessarily the individual students, but the general demeanor of the kids at the school.  One school I have been at had really “active” kids, another school had kids with less “personality.”  International school teachers must keep that in mind as they are thinking about moving on because you can’t just find the same kinds of student just anywhere.

“As I’ve done more consulting and conferences in the past two years people ask me quite often, “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”

It’s a questions I honestly can’t answer because I don’t know where I see myself in 1 year. But here’s what I do know.

So this year when it came to deciding to sign contracts at ISB for another year we sat down with the administration to see if I could have my cake and eat it too. Could I work in a school with students and continue to consult and present? Three years ago we reached an agreement that allowed me to take days without pay up to 20% to do consulting. Which brought me to ISB in the first place. With a new contract season upon us it was time to see if we could come to an agreement again….and I’m happy to say we did.

Next year I’ll be on a 90% contract at ISB as the High School Technology & Learning Coordinator. So I’ve given up 10% of my contract to focus on following my recent passion of consulting and presenting.”

What a great opportunity to take your career to the next level!  I guess there is much flexibility in our jobs working at international schools.  For die-hard members of our international school community, it truly is hard to decide where you will be in five years.  Most of us plan year to year, maybe 2 years in advance.  Some international schools allow a year to year contract, others make you sign a two-year contract.  Either way, each year international educators always have a mini-plan in the back of their mind about where they would like to go next.  It is what excites us; the endless possibilities of where you can live and work.

ISC Research: There are now over 6,000 English-medium international schools throughout the world.

International Schools reach 6,000!

There are now 6,000 English-medium international schools throughout the world. It is a market that has been growing significantly in recent years as a result of increased mobility by expatriate families and a dramatic rise in the number of local children attending international schools as a route to improved educational opportunities.

ISC Research, the organisation that analyses data on international schools worldwide, announced the news today. The figure refers to the total number of English-medium international schools that deliver their curriculum wholly or partly in English outside an English-speaking country. ISC Research anticipates this number will continue to rise to 10,000 international schools by 2021, teaching a total of 5.7million students and employing 545,000 English-speaking staff.

“The international schools market has doubled in size in the last ten years and will undoubtedly continue is dramatic growth over the next ten years,” says Nicholas Brummitt, Managing Director of ISC Research Ltd. “ The greatest demand is coming from increasingly wealthy families in Asia, including the Middle East, wanting an English-medium education for their children. Almost two thirds of the growth in schools and student numbers continues to be in this area.”

There is an acute shortage of international school places in some areas, particularly Hong Kong, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha. As a result, a number of countries are actively encouraging the growth of international schools including China, India, Malaysia, Korea, and the UAE.

“The future will be dominated by for-profit international schools, bilingual to varying degrees, located in residential communities, with more of an emphasis on local language and culture but at the same time increasingly international in terms of curriculum and outlook, albeit with a British or other national orientation and style,” says Nicholas Brummitt.  “This huge growth will increase competition for the best opportunities, the best teachers and the best students.”

ISC Research is the only organisation that supplies data and market analyses covering the world’s English-medium international schools; data that it has been tracking for over twenty years. The latest market updates plus individual school information, news, statistical overviews, and country reports are all available from ISC Research www.iscresearch.com.

Highlighted article: International schools in Mumbai are effected by new regulation.

Are the costs of sending your children to an international school too much for families in the middle class?  Are their too high in general for everyone?  A new regulation in Mumbai is effecting international schools there as it has been applied to all schools in the area: to limit schools in how much they can hike up their schools fees.  Currently there are 8 international schools listed in Mumbai on International School Community.

“The Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act, 2011, looming on the horizon of international schools has left managements in a tizzy.

International schools in Mumbai complain that its implementation will pose a challenge to maintenance of state-of-the-art infrastructure and high standards of education, if they are allowed only a 15% hike in fee — as has been laid down by the Act.

“The regulation should consider all perspectives like the huge gap between international schools and other schools due to the quality of education and teacher training, affiliation fees and salaries. So, it is not fair to keep the same bar for both,” argued V Balasubramanium, director, NES International School, Mulund.

Parents, though, are grinning from ear to ear, as the middle-class will now have easy access to affordable, good quality education.

Schools are mulling over ways to cut corners to skim through the problem. Kalpana Patel, principal of the Savitridevi Hariram Agarwal International School, Kandivli, elaborated, “The new regulation will put more pressure on schools. We will have to cut and squeeze our expenses for activities like sports day and annual day.”

The biggest task, after the Act is enforced, will be convincing parents to loosen their purse strings. Vandana Lulla, director-principal of the Podar International School, said, “If the parents-teachers association grants permission, schools can hike fees. Schools should be transparent in giving reasons for such a hike. Schools need to work out a plan.”

Manjusha Nabar, whose son studies at the Gundecha Academy, Kandivli, says the regulation will stop schools from charging exorbitant fees, allowing parents from middle income group to also dream big for their children.

Raju Tirmallee, another parent from Dombivli, said several parents have had to take a loan to pay for school fees. “The regulation should bring capitation fees under control.”

Taken from the Daily News & Analysis website.

Out of the thousands of international schools, people ask me why did I choose to work here?

Sometimes it’s like life keeps throwing you those ”Sliding Doors – moments.” Remember that movie with Gwyneth Paltrow where one decision can change you entire life? It’s these moments where you have to decide in a split-second, completely unaware of the repercussions, or how life-altering that decision might be. We have all been in that situation when you’ve had an international school put a contract in front of you, to be signed by you.  When you start to think about it, it might take your breath away for a second, knowing that each decision you make is somehow unique, and to put it more metaphorically: is the beginning of yet a thread in the tapestry that is your life.

In meteorology there is a term called “butterfly effect.” It is derived from the chaos theory, and describes the contingent phenomena that when a butterfly flaps it wings on one side of the planet it can cause a hurricane several weeks later another place on the planet. It basically means that events are connected, and what may seem as something insignificant and small, has consequences way beyond the first perception. It’s the obvious remark, in a somewhat grander scale, that there’s consequence to everything we do, and the choices we make.  One year you are thinking that Asia is the place for you to move to the following school year, but then suddenly you open your eyes and you are actually in South America having the time of your life!  It is so hard to predict where is the best place for you at a future time in your life.

There is a plethora of decisions to be made every day, some of them are of more significance than other, but we are faced with decision-making every single day of our lives. As we grow older, we learn about the term “consequence.”  We later learn that some decisions are to be based on solidarity and some solely on ourselves.  We learn that we are part of a community or a society, where some of our decisions are expected to coincide with the norm, and that breaking away from that shows lack of solidarity and selfishness. It’s all about making the right decision at the right time.

In childhood it is given that we act selfish, and each decision is derived from our own needs, selfish needs. The older we get the more vital our decisions become, and suddenly we have to think about ethics and how that decision may affect everyone around us. And thus begins the never ever ending circle of think and decision.

“At the international school job fair in Toronto, I was faced with so many options. I had offers from schools in Okinawa, Japan; Izmir, Turkey; Istanbul, Turkey; Ibadan, Nigeria; Rangoon, Burma; Bahrain; Monterrey, Mexico and Mexico City, Mexico. I felt like the prettiest girl at the ball.”  Taken from the blog Thatsawesome.  Most international school teachers have also been in this position.  So many cities in which to live and work, but only one can be possible.  This international school teacher chose Izmir, Turkey (and he told us that he is quite happy working and living there), but have a look at his influences and thought-process.  At times there can be so many factors to consider!

Decisions can be tough, and of course their importance varies, but in the end there’s only one person who can make them. Not every decision we make has the “butterfly effect” etiquette, but they do change our lives in one way or another. It can chisel the engine of your mind to almost overload. What really is the best decision?  How can we possibly choose from the plethora of choices that are sometimes placed in front of us?  It is a fact though, at times in the international school community split-second decisions need to be made; even when you have only hours to decide after you have been offered a contract.

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