Last week, Laowai Lowdown went over the process for enrolling kids into international schools. This week they are building on that topic and will talk about how expats can apply and enroll their kids into local public schools with international divisions. Currently, there are only 5 of these types of schools, four middle schools, one kindergarten.

If you have a question about this topic, please ask it here. One question from this forum will be selected and answered during the Laowai Lowdown segment (9:50pm, Monday, after ICS's Shanghai Live). If your question is chosen, you will receive a 300RMB gift voucher to Sherpas from SHEX!!



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We are interested in a few of the local schools like Aiju. Heard scary stories of how much homework or how hard the Chinese is. And that subjects like Math are all taught in Chinese. Would like to get a sense of what is expected. My daughter turns 7 in March and is currently in a bilingual school in the US but the Mandarin level is less intense than bilingual international schools (like Yew Chung) in Shanghai.

How does the public schools with international divisions curriculum and philosophy differ compared to international schools?

"Currently, there are only 5 of these types of schools, four middle schools, one kindergarten"

Really? Cos i know of primary, middle and high schools that are local and have an international stream. I used to work in a primary school with an international class in fact!

I'm willing to bet there are far more than the five you know and the three i do!

What makes an international division "international" aside from the enrollment of non-Chinese students? Is there some sort of accreditation or certification these programs need? Do a certain percentage of classes need to be taught in English or another non-Chinese language? Do their curricula need to be approved by an international educational organization? Are the Chinese and international divisions administrated separately or does one set of administrators oversee both divisions?

How many of the students are actually 'international' and not just lucky enough to have rich parents who could get them born in another country then moved back to China within months of birth?

Cynical i know, but this was common in the international stream at the local school i worked at.

Are these programs accredited? by whom?
How are these programs accredited or monitored?
Is there any outside measurement of student success?
How successful are former students in their next school or college?
What colleges have graduates been accepted to?
What is the median SAT score of the graduating class?

maurystory question was selected by ICS and will be aired tonight on ICS's Laowai Lowdown at 9:50pm!! Thanks to maurystory for contributing the question, we hope you got the answer you were looking for. You will be receiving a 300RMB gift certificate to Sherpa's for your contribution!!

Thank you to everyone else who participated, please check out next week's question for another chance to win and have your question answered by Laowai Lowdown!