Maple Leaf plans big private school expansion on mainland
The biggest international school operator in China has secured a US$9.5 million investment from the International Finance Corporation to help meet the growing demand for private education on the mainland.
The biggest international school operator in China has secured a US$9.5 million investment from the International Finance Corporation, a private sector arm of the World Bank Group, to help meet the growing demand for private education on the mainland.
The funds would help Maple Leaf, which yesterday became the first Chinese operator of private schools to list in Hong Kong, open 12 new primary and secondary schools in Xian, Yiwu and Pinghu to enrol about 9,000 students over the next three years, according to an IFC statement.
In recent years the number of private schools catering to Chinese nationals on the mainland has grown rapidly.
The growth was driven by the increasing number of expatriates in China since the late 1990s, and the strong desire of Chinese parents to eventually send their children to study abroad, according to a report by consulting firm Frost and Sullivan, which expects the trends to persist.
Maple Leaf, a company based in Dalian, educates more than 13,500 students in seven high schools, 10 middle schools, nine elementary schools, 12 preschools and two foreign-national schools in nine cities, including Chongqing, Dalian, Shanghai and Tianjin .
"We see this as a long-term investment. This is a good example where a scalable business can have a big development impact on society," said Henrik Pedersen, IFC's consumer and social services manager for Asia.
"I believe this chain of schools will do well in the long run. But we don't set a time frame for realising returns and IFC will stay with the investment as long as we have a role to play."
While most international schools on the mainland cater largely to expatriates, more than 90 per cent of Maple Leaf's students are from Chinese families.
"What makes this school exciting is this is a bilingual school that mainly targets local pupils living in second- and third-tier cities in China. They also have an ambitious expansion plan in new cities. It demonstrates that you can provide good education that is affordable," Pedersen said.
Maple Leaf's tuition fees are lower than other top international schools on the mainland. Fees range from 16,500 yuan (HK$20,900) per year for preschools to 49,000 yuan for high schools. At Nord Anglia, the mainland's second-biggest international school operator, pre-school fees are 145,200 yuan and high school fees are 240,000 yuan. Since 2005, prestigious British public schools Harrow and Dulwich College have opened satellite campuses on the mainland, but they accept only students with foreign passports.
Chinese nationals can study an international curriculum at a private school, but only at the same time as they follow the Chinese programme.
In the case of Maple Leaf, graduates receive an accredited British Columbia high school diploma as well as a Chinese one so they can apply to both Chinese and international universities.
The IFC was one of three cornerstone investors, along with Edmond de Rothschild Group and New China Life, which pledged a combined US$28.2 million for Maple Leaf's initial public offering in Hong Kong.
