Page 14 - ELG2107 Jul Issue 476

FEATURE .

The schools of the Empires fight back?

What is the current state of play when it comes to International schools?

Melanie Butler gives her verdict

ritish international schools are Hong Kong. Dhaka
nothing new – the English Schools and Mumbai.
Foundation in Hong Kong dates back Meanwhile, Indian
Bto 1894 when the King George V style international
School was opened in Tsim Sha Tsui for the schools have long
children of local British colonialists. been established in PHOTO BY PAVEL DANILYUK FROM PEXELS
Nor is Britain the only colonial power to the Emirates and
have opened schools in its former Empire and other locations
leave them behind when it left. The Grand with high numbers
Lycée Franco-Libanais in Beirut, Lebanon, of Indian expats,
was founded in 1909 and is still the flagship including Singapore.
of the 16 lycées in the country. Unlike the The Chinese
British, whose colonial schools were modelled government is also
on the historic public schools and were rumoured to be
independent of government and not for looking at expanding
profit, the international lycées were part of its network of
the French state school system and Mandarin-medium
the 529 state recognised lycées in 139 schools overseas.
countries are still regulated by the French So, who is
educational authorities. winning in the war
The American government has also of the international
long supported schools offering a US-style schools? Cambridge
curriculum. The State Department still lists International, a
193 assisted schools, known as schools at department of the
posts, since many were originally set up for University, claims
the children of US diplomats posted overseas, 10,000 Cambridge
though not all of them receive financial schools worldwide,
support from the American government or which certainly
offer a strictly American style of teaching. knocks the lycées
into Napoleon’s
cocked hat. But
Several provinces while all Cambridge schools take Cambridge alleged predators we’ve ever seen”, worked
in Canada offer academic subject exams in English, not in American international schools across
all of them by any means are British-style
the world for nearly 40 years, despite having
accreditation for the international schools. convictions for child abuse in California,
Apart from a pat on the back now and
before he was caught by the American school
growing number of then, the British government gives little to in Nicaragua. He fled to the States and
Canadian schools the British international school movement, committed suicide
Nor is it just international schools. Richard
but then it never has.
It is down to associations, such as the
overseas Council of British International Schools Huckle – dubbed “Britain’s worst paedophile”
by the British press, worked as an English
(COBIS) and think tanks including the language teacher in Christian church
There are now new government-backed Independent Schools Council (ISC) to supply communities in Malaysia where he raped and
players on the block. Several provinces in the information and backup they need, not filmed the abuse of children. He was later
Canada offer accreditation for the growing only in areas like curriculum and teacher killed in jail by a fellow inmate.
number of Canadian schools overseas and recruitment, but in more difficult situations, The truth is that paedophiles go where
there are moves in that direction in Australia. such as child safeguarding, which we deal children are: schools, language schools,
Haileybury School in Melbourne (founded in with on pages 8 and 16. churches, even scout groups. And all too often
1892 by a former pupil of Haileybury College Isn’t this just a British obsession? After all, in the past, schools the world over have either
in England with the college’s permission) now that’s what the grandees of Education France ignored the problem or have dismissed it.
not only has five campuses in Australia, but a said when a French teacher, recently released I remember contacting an international school
branded affiliate school in Beijing and partner from a British jail for molesting his students in Indonesia where a reader had tipped us
schools in Guangzhou in China, Timor L’Este on a school trip to England, asked for his off that a notorious paedophile, James Fraser
and the Philippines. teaching license to be restored. Two years Darling, had worked before getting a job in
Perhaps the latest state to enter the later he was arrested for sexually abusing a EFL. The school confirmed that Darling had
international school market is not a Western pupil in his school in rural France. worked there, but denied he could have been a
power, but an educational superpower. Safeguarding children is not just a paedophile because “the children loved him”.
Singapore International Schools (SIS), a matter for British schools or even British If British International schools and their
group backed by the Singaporean government international schools. William Vahey, an associations can help schools across the world
and, reportedly, the country’s sovereign American teacher described by the FBI recognise and root out the danger in their
wealth fund, has opened campuses in as “one of the most prolific and heinous midst, it will be better for everybody.
14 July 2021