Does the concept of an international school need redefining?

As the new school year gets underway across much of the international schools sector, leaders are understandably focused on reopening campuses, establishing routines and setting the tone for the year ahead.

Yet attention is already turning towards the next recruitment cycle. For many schools, that process is well underway, with statements of intent being sought, staffing needs being identified and early conversations with recruitment firms beginning.

This coming recruitment season may prove particularly unpredictable as geopolitical instability, particularly across the Middle East, reshapes traditional recruitment patterns and teacher mobility.

Teacher pay becoming more competitive

Yet geopolitics is only part of the story. A more fundamental challenge is emerging: the traditional economic advantage of teaching overseas is narrowing.

For decades, international schools offered an attractive proposition: relocate abroad, receive a competitive salary alongside housing, medical insurance and flights, experience a different culture and, in many cases, save considerably more than at home.

Now though, across much of the Western world, governments are increasing teacher salaries after years of stagnation. England has introduced consecutive pay awards, New Zealand has negotiated significant settlements, while many US states have raised salaries to combat persistent shortages.

Australia provides perhaps the clearest example. In the state of Victoria, the government’s latest offer proposed salary increases of more than 28 per cent over four years.

The fact teachers rejected the offer in pursuit of an even larger settlement may shock some but proves a point: pay is on the up.

Workload worries

Couple this with moves in some systems to reduce administrative burdens, limit unpaid overtime, improve flexibility and protect teachers’ professional time, and you can see how international schools are competing against very different state professions than the one teachers left five or 10 years ago.

At precisely the same time, many international schools are asking more of staff than ever before.

Teaching remains central, but today’s international teacher is often expected to contribute far beyond the classroom through extracurricular programmes, overseas trips, admissions events, accreditation, marketing, curriculum development and increasing pastoral responsibilities.

These opportunities make a school more appealing to parents and pupils, but for staff it means the employment proposition must remain compelling enough to justify the extra work required. Increasingly, that is becoming harder.

Conversations with school leaders across Southeast Asia are beginning to reveal an interesting pattern.

Even among established and well-remunerated schools, there are stories of candidates declining offers because the financial package and working conditions no longer compare as favourably with opportunities available at home.

These remain anecdotal rather than conclusive, but they are notable precisely because they would have been uncommon only a few years ago.

Changing economic pressures

The challenge is compounded by changing economics within the international sector.

For example, across Southeast Asia, new international schools arrive at an extraordinary pace. Many carry a prestigious British or American school brand, or are part of large international school groups with significant marketing resources. The same is happening across the Middle East.

To establish enrolments rapidly and satisfy ambitious growth projections, some launch with aggressive pricing strategies, including substantial founding-family incentives and lifetime fee discounts.

The result is a far more competitive marketplace in which all schools face growing pressure to contain costs while simultaneously differentiating themselves through quality, facilities and outcomes.

As if that wasn’t enough, schools worldwide face a heady mix of inflation - with energy prices, insurance, imported goods, construction costs and everyday living expenses all up - and geopolitical uncertainty that makes planning hard, poses risks to staff mobility and even risks site security in some areas.

The increasing value of local hires

In response to these pressures, many schools will turn to - if they have not already - a greater proportion of locally recruited teachers. They often require fewer relocation benefits, present fewer visa challenges and bring valuable cultural knowledge and continuity.

Complementing this, schools are also broadening recruitment beyond traditional expatriate recruitment markets to regions where packages may remain comparatively attractive.

This has come along at a point in which the “local hire” no longer necessarily means limited international experience. In many countries, schools can recruit locally from teachers with extensive experience of the International Baccalaureate, Cambridge and other international curricula.

Yet, if this happens, it will bring new questions to schools, not least: are you still an international school? After all, one of the defining characteristics of international schools has been the composition of their teaching staff.

Families choosing an international school do so with an expectation that a substantial proportion of teachers will have been educated and trained within those systems.

For ex-pats, it means the school mimics where their child would have gone at home. For locals, it may provide that sense that they are buying into a truly global education.

What does it mean to be an international school?

But if staffing profiles evolve to become more local, schools may increasingly face uncomfortable questions, such as:

• What exactly makes an international school “international” beyond its curriculum?
• What constitutes the distinctive value proposition that justifies premium fees?
• How much does the composition of the faculty influence parents’ perception of the education they are buying into?

For schools, the challenge therefore is not just to offer the highest salary for jobs, but to balance pay with a manageable workload, wellbeing, professional growth opportunities and a staffing cohort that benefits from great local staff, without undermining the internationalism fee-paying parents want.

The international schools sector has always adapted to the challenges it faces - the pandemic is a timely example.

The next decade, though, will demand another adaptation and perhaps a reckoning with the question: does the idea and the identity of an international school need to be redefined?

Sam Gipson is principal of Kinabalu International School in Malaysian Borneo and chair of the Association of International Malaysian Schools