Business boom brings growing demand for quality education
Business is booming o the mainland and Macau, and where there are young professionals, there are children in need of a quality education.
In the case of the mainland, the picture is one of steady growth. Conservative estimates put the number of foreign students in Beijing and Shanghai last year at 26,000, and that's without adding the many expatriate children in other thriving cities.
In the case of Macau, the casino boom has led to the need for an urgent expansion in independent school places. It was reported recently that although only 4,058 babies were born last year in the former Portuguese colony, the population rose by 21,150. Against this backdrop has come the foundation of the International School of Macau (TIS), a multinational institution with students from 38 countries, which follows a Canadian curriculum accredited by the province of Alberta. The school, with 600 students and plans for a new campus to take that to 900 and ultimately 1,500, extends an independent education sector that had comprised only the Macau Portuguese School, which teaches in Portuguese, and small School of Nations.
One of TIS's founders, Neil Johnston, said the economic boom had fired expansion at the school.
'Last year we had a growth rate of more than 25 per cent and we expect that to continue for at least four to five years until the school is full,' he said. 'We took the step in 2006 of opening up additional classes in Grades Six, Seven and Eight.