The International Schools Review Forum

Besides SAS, ISKL, and ISB, what are some other not for profit schools in the region? I want my next post to be away from the profit driven schools.

Vientiane International School

@twoteachers

In general I understand your concern, NPOs (Non-Profit Organization) are generally better, but understand an NPO IS can be operated with a strong focus on revenue similar to that of a for-profit IS. Excess revenue can simply be used to pay additional compensation to board members (of which ownership sits on) or in single ownership ISs as consulting performance/merit compensation to a single owner as an ordinary business expense. It is neither difficult or illegal to do so.

Thanks for the heads up!!

There are also: ISM, JIS and TAS, i.e. the other half of IASAS.

Add...
Bangkok Patana,
NIST,
St. Joseph's Singapore,
Tanglin Trust,
Alice Smith KL,
British School Jakarta,
British School Manila,
Brent,
UNIS,
many, many in HK including HKIS.

As mentioned, there isn't a school amongst them that aren't profit driven as such, although what happens to that profit (back in the school/back pocket of owner) can be very different, but I'm not talking about any of the schools mentioned. There are some fine schools that have been mentioned in this thread so far, however.

Great list by Martella!

I might add
Saigon south
UNIS Hanoi

UWCSEA and HK as well.

There also the United World Colleges in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Lets remember naming of ISs is not permitted in the public forums.

You can name them...you can't review them.

Saigon South is owned by a company which runs the school as a "non-profit". I would not consider this totally non-profit. The board is made up of 2...yes, 2 people that work for the company. Lots of gray area here when it comes to "non-profit"

@twoteachers

The thread is reviewing board ownership, etc.

Unless a school is completely funded by a state or charitable institution, someone somewhere somehow, is making a profit.

Vernacular is absolutely correct.

Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer true non-profit international schools anywhere in the world. International schools are a great way for wealthy locals to make a lot of money - or launder a lot of money.

Vernacular is absolutely incorrect– as are you, Senator Ted. Here’s a cheap and easy definition of not-for-profit:

“Not for profit is a type of organization that does not earn profits for its owners. All of the money earned by or donated to a not for profit organization is used in pursuing the organization's objectives.”

While it is true that the large, large majority of new “international” schools that have opened in the last 15 years are for-profit, it’s hard to think of more than one or two of the not-for-profits that have sold out to owners. Prove me wrong. Give me the names. And show me how, say, one of those IASAS schools nominated in this list doesn't meet the definition of not-for-profit in any way. Or NIST or Bangkok Patana or HKIS or most of the others.

Of course all of these not-for-profit schools are run in a business-like way. Why? Because they have bills to meet and salaries to pay. Do they seek to make surpluses each year? Of course they do, because they reinvest in their campuses and their educational resources. Do they carry sizeable investment portfolios? Of course they do, because sensible Boards wish to make sure of their organizations’ long term financial integrity and stability.

As an example, we have a policy-mandated liquidity equal to six months of expenditure. Why? Because if the school has to close – whether through natural or man-made disaster – we recognize that we will still have obligations for faculty and staff salaries, for business continuity and so on.

Perhaps you want to work in an international school that loses money every year, with a deteriorating and dangerous campus, 20 year old textbooks, 1MB of bandwidth for the entire student and faculty population, where you count yourselves lucky if payroll comes out on time and where, if the school should close because of a terrorist bomb, everyone is fired the same day.