ISJ November 2015: International schools – creative communities with a cause

Matthew Taylor

Abstract:

To misquote US Secretary of State Dean Acheson, international schools appear to be building an empire but not yet finding their role.

   Spurred by societal as much as educational forces of change, international schools are evolving rapidly and, to some extent, anarchically. Over the last 25 years, the International School Consultancy group (ISC) has recorded a sevenfold increase in their provision, growing from under 1000 to more than 7545 by January 2015.1 Between 2000 and 2014, the numbers of students in international schools experienced a fourfold increase to 3.92 million (January 2015). During the same period, fee income rose eightfold, to an annual value of $37.9 billion. The global economic crash of 2008 had no adverse impact on this remarkable pattern of growth.