At Swiss School in Singapore (SSiS), a German-speaking school, about 40% of its students either do not speak German as their first language, or speak multiple languages at home, one of which might be German.
At Lycee Francais de Singapour (LFS), which follows a French curriculum, there has been a 140% increase in non-French speaking students between 2016 and 2017, estimated the school’s principal Christian Soulard.
One possible reason for the increase in enrolment is the challenge that international students face in enrolling in local schools.
International students who wish to join local schools can enrol in the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) preparatory program for the Admissions Exercise for International Students (AEIS).
The AEIS is a centralised exercise that takes place in September or October each year, for students who wish to join mainstream primary and secondary schools in January the following year.
Leo Liao, who relocated his family from Beijing, had enrolled his daughter in the program. However, he noticed that some of her classmates at the prep school had been there for as long as two years.
“They had repeatedly tried the AEIS, and they repeatedly failed,” Liao told Channel NewsAsia. “The school was good, but it’s not meant for children to stay there long term.”
Liao added that the results of the AEIS are not transparent, explaining that they only indicate whether the child is admitted or not.
Also, his daughter, Lea, would be held back at least one or two years if she was successfully admitted into a local school.
Instead of enrolling Lea into an English-speaking international school, Liao decided to put her in LFS.
“I think my daughter is the only one in her class where both her parents have no French blood,” he said. “But my wife and I used to study in France, and we thought it would be good to let her learn another language apart from Mandarin and English.”
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