In November, Reuters News Agency published an article on private schools in China ( https://lnkd.in/eknXpTmn ) that featured a comment from Venture saying "“The cynic would say the sector is in terminal decline, the average Chinese investor simply that it’s going through growing pains”
Subsequently, a number of other news outlets have written stories off the back of this article including...
Our founder Julian Fisher has written some thoughts on this recent flurry of articles ( https://lnkd.in/ereiE7yK ) and we've previously written a more optimistic take on the private school sector in China ( https://lnkd.in/e8wQ5f-x )
But we would add some further observations:
1. There continues to be a fatal misunderstanding in the media about the licensing of schools in China. There are four types: public, private, embassy and foreign-passport holder. The first two are for Chinese nationals and compliant with curriculum requirements for all Chinese during compulsory years of education (6-15 years old). The latter two, exclusively for foreigners, offer international curriculum but do not somehow exist extra-territorially; they must still follow Chinese law and MoE guidelines.
2. There are over 500,000 schools in China. Of these, around 50 are British-partnered, just over 100 for foreign-passport holders, and around 700 loosely defined as internationally-oriented (meaning the majority of their graduates will head overseas for their undegraduate degree). To put that simply, "British" schools represent about 0.0001% of schools in China.
3. We believe that all these schools, foreign-passport holder, internationally-oriented, bilingual, and globally-partnered are profoundly important and something to be treasured and supported. A different educational approach, genuinely innovative engagement with areas such as sustainability and entrepreneurship, opportunities for mutual understanding between international and Chinese educators and leaders, Chinese students who will thrive overseas, and international students with fluency in Mandarin and the elusive "China capability" so in demand by global governments.
While their number may be small, we have no doubt that their graduates will make an outsize impact on the world we live in.
These schools are the antithesis of "decoupling".
And long may they prosper.
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