As many as 96 percent of expats responding to our recent education poll feel that their children are benefiting from schooling abroad and, despite some grumbles, over 80 percent were pleased with the standard of primary and secondary education in their chosen country.

Child in library For expats with older children, or those in higher education themselves, views on tertiary education in their host-country were mixed. However, 88 percent were pleased with the general standard of education. Around half of those in higher education (or their children) were at university studying for a Bachelor degree.

We also ran a questionnaire for those with a view of the system from the other side; teachers working abroad. The majority were women (63%), on their first expatriation, teaching in the English language (68%), with a BA/ BSc. Read our full report, "The Challenges of teaching abroad", on the teachers’ survey, which includes comments from the teachers on the pros and cons of teaching children of diverse cultures.

 

For both surveys, the majority of expats responding – about a quarter – came from the UK, followed closely by those of American origin. The diverse mix of other countries of origin includes Angola, Belarus, Belize, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany India, Iraq, Lebanon, Switzerland, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. Half of the respondents lived in the Netherlands and for this reason 20 percent the spouses’ nationalities recorded were Dutch. Fifty-five percent of respondents said that they were on their first expatriation.

Most children were in international schools
The majority of parents had children at international school at primary (35%) or secondary (43%) level followed by those with children in national primary (22%) and secondary schools (9%). Other types of schools (14%) included European school and private schools. In 75 percent of the cases, the language of instruction was English followed by the local language. Forty-eight percent of the parents said their children were going to government-subsidised schools.

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