Teachers and students from other countries are leaving Chinese international schools in massive numbers. Certain schools, according to some in the sector, will not be able to withstand Beijing’s pursuit of a COVID-Zero environment.
Travel restrictions, lockdowns, and more regulation are all to blame for the sector’s troubles.
Approximately 40% of instructors on the mainland are projected to resign this year, up from 30% last year and 15% before the epidemic began.
It is Aleksa Moss’ job to lead the school’s pre-school program in Guangzhou.
She claims they’re having a hard time finding replacements for the instructors who’ve stepped down: “We’re now in the 2022 recruitment season, and we’re seeing a new trend emerge of instructors and leadership and practically all constituencies at foreign schools deciding to leave China, so the applicant pool inside the country has decreased significantly. As a result, both recruiting inside China and recruiting from outside China has become more difficult. So it’s been a great challenge to locate the right people, especially in this current hiring season.”
Fees at some international schools may surpass $44,000 per year. Parents in the middle class of China consider them as the best hope for their children to get a spot at a top international institution.
In recent years, some people have chosen to stay in China rather than migrate since the country is almost free of COVID.
Families from other countries are deciding to return to their nations because of a reappearance of the illness. Others are turned off by the prospect of going to China at all.’
The Association of China and Mongolia International Schools’ executive director, Tom Ulmet, says: “Many heads have told me that they have been spending up to three hundred hours or more, trying to recruit teachers to come to China. But now, people around the world have been reading about the lockdowns and just don’t feel a need to subject themselves to that. So they take jobs elsewhere.”
Beijing has also taken steps to minimize the influence of foreigners in the country’s educational system. As a result, a number of educational institutions have had to adapt to new rules. An English public school in London has withdrawn a proposal to open schools in China, while a Beijing school associated with Harrow has been compelled to relinquish its well-known brand name.
