Malaysia has most students in international schools in SEA

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia tops the charts in Southeast Asia when it comes to the number of students enrolled in premium English-medium international schools, according to the latest report published by ISC Research (ISC).

As of Q1 this year, Malaysia has 71,589 students enrolled in such schools in the country, followed by Thailand (64,928 students) and Singapore (63,789).

Indonesia and Vietnam complete the top five with 57,402 and 40,003 students.

Student enrolment in international schools has gone up by 33.9% over the last four years across the region.

The data was released by ISC Research, the world’s leading authority on market intelligence on international schools, ahead of the forthcoming International Private Schools Education Forum (IPSEF) conference due to take place on March 22 to 24 at the InterContinental Hotel Kuala Lumpur.

In terms of the number of international schools, Indonesia is tops among Southeast Asian countries with 190 schools, followed by Thailand (181) and Malaysia (170).

Completing the top five are Cambodia with 114 international schools followed by Vietnam with 111.

IPSEF co-founder Rhona Greenhill, citing data from the ISC report, said Southeast Asia recorded a 39% growth in the number of international schools from 725 to 1008 since 2013.

“We see a lot of growth potential in this part of the world for private and international schools mainly as a result of the continued growth of the economies in East and Southeast Asia,” she added.

Teacher recruitment will also be a key issue at the conference, as recruiting top talent has always been a great challenge for many international schools, with key presentations on teacher retention and global recruitment and placement of teachers.

Further information on the conference programme and registration details may be obtained from www.ipsef.net.