Page 15 - ELG2107 Jul Issue 476

SPECIAL FEATURE
Asia closes ranks

The restrictions on who can attend international schools – and when
– in a number of Asian countries are tightening, says Melanie Butler

new Harrow International Many of the new schools are
School is due to open in branded affiliates of British
Japan in April next year. schools: Dulwich International,
AThe school, which like another early entrant in the
the other Harrow-branded schools market, now has branches in PHOTO BY DAN BUI FROM PIXABAY
in Asia, is part of the AISL chain Singapore, Korea and Myanmar;
that operates under license from Marlborough College has opened
the historic British school, will in Malaysia, as has Repton in
be fully residential, as indeed the Dubai.
original Harrow school has always All is not plain sailing, because
been. It hopes to welcome 960 Japan is not the only Asian
students from across the region government that bans its citizens
to its new home in the Japanese from sending their children to
mountains. international schools. Since it
It cannot, however, legally became an independent state,
welcome local Japanese children Singapore has insisted that all
until they reach the age of 15. children of citizens attend a local
Under Japanese law, children state primary school, although they
of citizens must attend ‘Article may enrol in a private secondary
1’ schools until they finish school within the Singapore
compulsory school education, system, some of which also own
with a very few exceptions, such branches for expatriate children.
as the children of families with This means Singaporeans cannot
dual citizenship. International attend a local international school
schools are not covered by Article until the age of 16.
1, as they operate under license
from the local Prefecture and
are classified as ‘miscellaneous A growing
schools’, a category that includes
driving instruction centres. number of
From the age of 15, Japanese Japanese British Columbia syllabus school schools, they must be taught the
children can be enrolled in and in mid-June the owner of a Chinese national curriculum and
private high schools, including parents are ‘language school’ offering a US take national exams in Chinese
international ones. A growing curriculum and accredited by a at age 16. Many British-affiliated
number of Japanese parents are opting their US body, was fined for running an chains reacted by launching
opting their children out of the children out of unuauthorised school. bilingual schools, such as the AISLs
Japanese system at an earlier In China, the Hong Kong Harrow Innovation and Leadership
age, though, and sending them the Japanese region still allows local children Academies launched in 2020.
to English medium schools, to enrol in international schools, This year, however, the Chinese
often unlicensed, according to system though following the recent government has gone further.
an article on the Nikkei Asian introduction of the National From September, all private
website. However, this involves Security Law there may be policy schools in the country will have
the parents getting ‘approval from Korea’s laws are particularly changes. Since February, children to ‘adhere to the leadership of
public elementary and junior high strict on international schools, aged from six are expected to be the Communist Party of China,
schools to treat them as truants’, only allowing enrolment by taught the four offences under adhere to the direction of socialist
a process which can leave the children with at least one foreign this law – subversion, secession, education, strengthen the
children in legal limbo. parent, Korean children who have terrorism and collusion with education of socialist core values
The spread of Asian been educated for at least three foreign forces – while in April, for the educated’, and must include
international schools enrolling years and children of a person of curriculum changes were made in Communist Party members on the
local children has continued foreign birth who has become a the core subjects of maths, liberal board of governors.
apace since AISL opened its first naturalised Korean citizen. As in subject, and the Chinese and Most onerous of all, private
overseas branch of Harrow in Japan, Korean parents often opt to English languages. schools can ‘only be owned by
Bangkok in 1998, at the suggestion send their children to unlicensed On the Mainland, the Chinese nationals who live in the
of the Thai royal family, which has international schools operating government introduced a ‘high People’s Republic of China’ and
long sent many of its princes to under the guise of language school only’ policy for local children who can be jailed ‘for violating the
the British school. schools. The government has in 2018. So, while children under national education policy’.
Increasing numbers of children been cracking down. In 2017, it the age of 15 may attend local Are the problems facing
are enrolling in such schools in deported a number of Canadian private schools, many of which are international schools in Asia
Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia. teachers who were working at a branded affiliates of British public about to get tougher?
editorial@elgazette.com 15