International schooling cost-benefits

All parents want the best education for their children. They want them to become healthy, happy adults who contribute to society in a positive way and to succeed financially. Most parents are willing to invest whatever resources they have to attain these objectives. For the middle class, one way of achieving this objective is to send their children to an international school. But even after weighing the often substantial costs and benefits of international education, it’s not an easy decision to make. There are several factors to consider. For example, the education infrastructure and facilities provided by international schools are substantially better than of free-of-charge government schools. Well-equipped classrooms and excellent student-teacher ratios enable teachers to draw out the full potential of students and provide targeted guidance on a one-to-one basis. Yet, great infrastructure and good teachers don’t guarantee students success or value for money for parents. The magic of education requires more than fine buildings and laboratories, and talented teachers. To acquire real education, factors which are far harder to pin down have to come into play. For instance, the culture of the chosen school has to be affirmative and supportive, providing a conducive teaching and learning environment. Relationships between teachers and students have to be positive and the leadership should be inspiring. Huge institutional budgets can’t per se guarantee these intangible qualities which are the hallmarks of an excellent international school. Some studies in the United States indicate there’s very little difference in the learning outcomes of private and public schools in America, especially in subjects such as mathematics. This is unsurprising because with relatively high levels of investment in public education, great facilities and excellent teachers, the gap between private and public schools can narrow to a slender difference. The Centre of Education Policy in the US has reported that there’s no evidence that fees-levying schools necessarily improve students’ academic performance. However, they did find evidence that private schools are better in developing the analytical and critical thinking skills of students. In the UK, researchers analysed examination results of thousands of students to ascertain if parents derive any real benefit from investing in expensive private school education. In that country, the evidence seems clear — private school students have an advantage. Although there are exceptions to the rule, this is usually because of peculiar socio-economic factors in particular localities. A more recent study conducted by UK’s ministry of education, indicates that only the most able state school students exhibited better learning outcomes than the average private school student. Moreover, a London School of Economics research study some years ago indicated there was “ample evidence” that students educated in fees-levying private schools earn more, and are more likely to land the best jobs. Indeed, the LSE study indicated that the average return on aggregate investment in private school education was between 7-13 percent — not at all a bad return in the European context. Stepping back from statistics and research results, it’s easy to see why the choice…