Foreign influx 'threatens uniquely British identity of public schools'

[Spiraling Leopard]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1381345/Foreign-influx-threatens-uniquely-British-identity-public-schools.html

Private schools risk diluting their ‘uniquely British identity’ as pupils numbers are kept buoyant by an increase in overseas students.
A national census of fee-paying schools shows the number of new foreign pupils in independent schools has reached unprecedented levels, increasing by a massive 44.4 per cent on last year.
More than a third of these youngsters, 37.8 per cent, are from China and Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, some 2,559 fewer British pupils were admitted in September 2010, compared with the previous year.
Experts believe the fall in British pupil numbers is due to high fees, which spiralled out of control during Labour years and increased by an average of 4.5 per cent in September 2010.
Average boarding fees for sixth formers are now £26,346-a-year and £16,290 for day pupils. Three schools now charge in excess of £30,150.

The average annual fee for a private education is £13, 179. That is an increase of 4.6 per cent on last year.
The fees are proving prohibitive for many recession-hit British parents. But wealthy parents from China and Kong Hong, who have a culture of paying for a good education, are happier to fork out.
They believe a British private school education will help their child get into a top UK university.

The revelation coincides with the phenomenon of the Tiger Mother who will relentlessly push their children to academic success.
Yesterday David Lyscom, chief executive of the Independent Schools Council, warned the trend risked diluting the nature of independent schools.

He said: ‘Some schools specialise in teaching overseas students, to prepare them for entry to British universities.
‘So in the majority of private schools there are a handful of overseas pupils.
‘But one of the attractions of a British independent education is that it is uniquely British.
‘It is a brand that needs to be protected. It is all very well to have them [overseas students] but we need to make sure that it doesn’t go too far or we’ ll lose our appeal.’
Data from the Independent Schools Council census, which covers 1,234 schools, shows a total of 13,944 of the 506,500 pupils in fee paying schools - 5 per cent - are non-British with parents living overseas. This is an increase of 5.5 per cent on last year.
On average, each school has around 20 overseas pupils. The average independent school has 410 pupils.
Overall independent pupil numbers have dipped slightly, by 0.2%.
It brings the numbers back to 2004 levels, after peaking in 2009, with some 506,500 pupils in the 1,234 fee paying schools.
Mr Lyscom added that although they had lost a few British pupils he was very encouraged because, despite the recession, few were fleeing the independent sector.
This academic year there are some 5,859 pupils from Hong Kong and 3,428 and China in private schools.
Of these 2,245 from Hong Kong and 1,684 from China were new to their school.
Self-proclaimed Tiger Mother Amy Chua, author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, said Chinese parents fight far harder than Western parents to educate their children.
She said they are prepared to ‘shrimp and save’ for a good education and ‘drill their children on academic task ten times more than Western parents’.
The next single country with a large share in pupils in fee-paying schools was Germany where 9.6 per cent of all foreign students.