A costly education(2)

According to Zhang, the high-turnover of foreign teachers in Chinese-run international schools can be accounted for by a number of reasons. Many foreign teachers, he said, come to China for the experience of travel, and so do not often stay at any one school for more than a year.

"They hop from city to city, never staying in a single place for long," Zhang said.

Another reason, according to Zhang, was the relatively poorer salaries foreign teachers received at Chinese-run international schools compared to foreigner-run international schools.

Pang elaborated on the second point, saying that a teacher at a foreigner-run international school could have a salary as high as 40,000 yuan ($6,431.38) a month, whereas generally speaking, teachers at Chinese-run international schools would make little more than half of that.

Cash cows

Since 2009, China has sent more students for tertiary study in the US than any other country. This year, there were more than 275,000 Chinese students enrolled in universities in the US, according to the Institute of International Education.

Correspondingly, the number of international schools in the country, which are seen by most parents as breeding places for admittance into universities abroad, have multiplied from 22 in 2000 to 338 in 2013, according to statistics published by the International School Consultancy Group.

Xiong Bingqi, vice-president of 21st Century Education Research Institute in Shanghai, said that the proliferation of so many international schools was driven by profit, and many of them did not offer a quality of education that justified their exorbitant fees.

He said that those attending many of the Chinese-run international schools would graduate without being equipped with the necessary learning or communication skills to assimilate into Western learning institutions abroad. "Academically, [many of these schools] don't stack up to Chinese public schools, and they also don't provide the more well-rounded educational experience that they purport to."

Liu said that when she enrolled at the Chinese-run international school, she had expected to be treated according to the values of a Western-education system, which to her, included an emphasis on developing the person, rather than just seeking grades, as well as transparency, fairness, and equal opportunity. Not only were there very few extracurricular activities offered by the school, according to Liu, but students with good grades were always given preferential treatment.

She gave the example of an opportunity to attend an event organized by Global China Connection, an NGO that facilitates international social and educational exchanges for Chinese students from public schools and international schools. Her school was given three places. "Our teacher just gave the opportunity to the three students with the best grades, without any other application process," said Liu.

She said that this and other experiences made her feel as if she was still "under the shadow of traditional Chinese culture."

"The school gives all the best opportunities to the high-achieving students, so they'll have the best chance of getting into a famous university, which the school can then use as propaganda for recruitment," Liu said. "The rest of us were just cash cows that didn't receive any attention."

Choosing wisely

Both the schools mentioned in the article were contacted by both phone and e-mail for comment, but failed to respond by the time of going to press.

A spokesperson for the Chinese-run Beijing City International School (BCIS) however, said that it was important not to tar all Chinese-run international schools with the same brush.

Established in 2004, BCIS has more than 1,000 students. In response to questions about whether the school limits its curriculum, Zhang Jing, manager of communications for the school, said that BCIS offered the full program of courses for the International Baccalaureate, which includes classes in holistic learning and cultural awareness. As for their teaching faculty and turnover, Zhang Jing said their more than 100 teachers were all from overseas, except for the 10 teachers who teach Chinese language classes. She added that more than 10 their foreign teachers had been teaching at the school since its founding, and that 60 percent of their students are foreigners, giving the school an international atmosphere.

Xiong advised parents who wanted to send their children to Chinese-run international schools to thoroughly research each school before making a choice, as the quality of different international schools could vary greatly.

"They could see if this school is certified by international educational bodies, such as the New England Association of Schools and Colleges," Xiong said. He also advised parents to ask if they had a stable teaching staff, and whether the school offered many extracurricular activities.

"Parents and prospective students should visit the school's campus beforehand. They should observe what students are doing during recesses, to see whether they are talking about things that are useful, to see if they are speaking in English, and to see whether the school has a good library and whether students are making use of it," he said.

For Liu however, it is already too late. Although she managed to fulfill her dream of studying abroad, she now has a lot of catching up to do.

"There's no turning back. I can only work harder now to compensate for what I missed out on," Liu said.