The International Schools Review Forum

With Singapore facing downturn, how many of you out there are exiting the Lion city? I learned a few schools didn't renew contracts for the very same reason.

OFS School just let 12 teachers go last week (they will work until end of school year).
Numbers and jobs are down island wide.
Lot of teachers looking at the situation carefully...

Apparently SE Asia seems to be slipping into a slow recession, thanks to the falling oil prices and an inward looking US economy. Does this mean job security takes precedence over fat paycheck?

It's not just Singapore & SE Asia, there seems to be a slowdown everywhere. I have heard of teachers in a few schools in other regions being non-renewed and not replaced due to enrollment drops and the resulting budget issues.

@buffalofan
Do you mean as other schools in China and Japan?

The expat packages are becoming fewer as companies replace executives with local hires, ones who may not be as likely to send their kids to international schools.

@Overhere
No more sweet spots for teachers eh?

Oh, I think there are sweet spots but everyone has different standards and expectations so mine might not be yours. At one time in my career I would have jumped on a job in Singapore but I don't think I would now.

As I get older, I'd love some stability and peace. I'm not sure if Singapore offers that anymore.

I'm with you, stability and peace is nice

Interesting post. I wonder to what degree enrolment at international schools serves as a proxy indicator for global economies.
I'd heard that Dubai's economy has had troubling signs of stalling, but this is the first from Singapore. I hesitate to read too much into one lower tier school letting go of teachers, given that school's somewhat dubious history. Then again, maybe that school's enrolment serves as a canary in the coal mine of sorts.

Well, the waves are being felt at the top school in Bangkok suburbs and even teachers were let go. Same with some big schools in China. International schools in any major export-oriented country with a large expat student population often feel the pinch during a severe downturn. May be schools should have a better mix of local students to offset these shocks. Would be interesting to see how fast Singapore recovers.

I also wonder how Brexit will impact international schools in Europe. Some in Paris and Amsterdam might even benefit overall.

Fine Dude, thanks for sharing that info. To your points about schools having a better mix of local students, I wonder if somewhere like TAS that has a high population of local students will in fact be in a better place moving into economic downturns, and for that matter, if they've been insulated from past downturns.

Not sure on Brexit, but it seems that a lot will depend on the negotiations that take place over the next two years between the UK and the EU.

On a related note to the two previous ideas, I've asked a number of friends at top tier schools in Western Europe how the 2008 downturn affected their schools. For the most part, enrolment at these schools went up and waiting lists grew as corporations withdrew employees from overseas hubs to bring them back to main hubs/home bases in W.E.

fine dude wrote:
> Well, the waves are being felt at the top school in Bangkok suburbs and
> even teachers were let go. Same with some big schools in China.
> International schools in any major export-oriented country with a large
> expat student population often feel the pinch during a severe downturn. May
> be schools should have a better mix of local students to offset these
> shocks. Would be interesting to see how fast Singapore recovers.
>
> I also wonder how Brexit will impact international schools in Europe. Some
> in Paris and Amsterdam might even benefit overall.

In general IE mirrors DE, which follows economic trends. However, its somewhat unusual to think of ITs as fungiable but it is. When corps send fewer employees as expats to OS offices, ISs can and do turn to recruiting more local students. Even at that point as buying power falls you see different shifts between IE and DE, butt eh number of students that require education doesnt change. What this means is that if IS growth falls then more DSs will as a result of local demanding parents require more International (English) Academies within DE. In JP outside of ETs there is a lot more growth in DSs for English EP ITs than there is in ISs. What this comes down to thoguh and the cause for crises is that the packages shrink, what was a fat OSH package and salary know becomes an OS DT appointment on an LH package.

In SG while IE is shrinking the MOE foreign recruitment division is increasing its number of foreign hires.

In Asia an economic downturn is only an issue for schools that cater to expats. Schools that have a large amount of local students or only cater to local students don't have any issues. You don't see any third-tier schools in China worrying about an economic downturn because they are doing fine. It's only the first-tier/second-tier schools serving expats that worry about this.