The Greater Bay Area’s economic integration will see greater demand for “international education” at private schools, with most of this coming from local students rather than expatriates, according to an education veteran.

Betty Chan Po-king, CEO of Yew Chung International Schools in Hong Kong, said for the GBA to rival other hubs, today’s students need to be taught the right people skills to lead the region’s future growth.

“Given rapid economic development and technological advancement in the GBA, to succeed, students need to be creative, resilient, agile, open-minded, ready to collaborate with people from different cultures and have a humble attitude for lifelong learning,” she said in an interview. “These are not skills easily taught in traditional classrooms.”

Chan has co-founded and built with her husband Paul Yip Kwok-wah a string of Yew Chung and Yew Wah branded private schools in mainland Chinese cities since 1993.

Yip is a former adviser to the central government and later adviser to Hong Kong’s first chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa.

On her return to Hong Kong after obtaining her doctorate degree in early childhood education in the US in the early 1970s, Chan rebuilt the Yew Chung primary school in Kowloon which was first set up by her mother in 1927. 

“Going forward, local students’ enrolment growth is likely to be faster than that of expatriate kids,” she said. “Given the coronavirus pandemic, how many western companies will still be sending staff to China is a concern. In our Chongqing campus, we have lost over 100 expat students who had to relocate due to the pandemic.

“On top of that, tense US-China relations saw the Trump administration pressure US companies to move their operations out of China. Also, the trend in recent years of Chinese parents sending children overseas for education at a younger age will retreat, given the horrendous experience of some kids stranded overseas during the public health crisis.”

China was the world’s second largest international schools market in January, enrolling 389,100 students, trailing 678,100 in the United Arab Emirates, according to UK-based ISC Research.