International Schools in China: Beijing as a Hub

The development of international schools, as we know them today, began in the mid-1920s. These institutions primarily catered to Western expatriate families who wished their children to be educated in a system compatible, academically and linguistically, with the ones in their home country (Hayden and Thompson 2008). The first two international schools – located in Switzerland and Japan – were both established in 1924, and provided their curricula in English and French (Hayden and Thompson 2008). In China, international schools were not officially permitted to operate until the ‘opening-up period’ in the late 1970s. Prior to this, most Western expatriates in China sent their offspring to boarding school in their home country, although younger children often attended local nurseries and schools (Hooper 2016, 34 and 85–86).

The first international school in China – the International School of Beijing (ISB) – was founded by the United States Liaison Office in Beijing during the early 1970s, prior to the normalisation of Sino-American relations (ISB n.d.). The school – officially founded in 1980 – was led by the US Embassy and merged academic initiatives and classes run by the British, Australian, Canadian and New Zealand embassies (ISB n.d.). The school provided a pre-university education for the children of Beijing-based diplomats and embassy staff; the number of which had soared after China established diplomatic relations with several Western countries in the late 1970s. Officially registered as a ‘school for diplomatic children,’ it was eventually granted permission to accept all foreign students by the Beijing Municipal Education Bureau in 2002 (ISB n.d.).