Across the education sector debates about what any future government should do to help schools have been rife, with funding, teacher recruitment, Ofsted and much more in the headlines - all rightly so.
It was notable to see the Tes Global Advisory Board (GAB), formed of international school heads and groups, issue its own call for what the next government should focus on to help ensure that the international sector - a major asset in Britain’s educational prowess - is given due support.
The GAB’s five policy asks certainly chime with much of what I hear in my role as CEO of the Council of British International Schools (COBIS), both when talking to international schools and their leadership teams and during discussions on various boards and committees that I sit on at government level and at organisations like Ucas.
Teacher recruitment for international schools
For example, while teacher recruitment is a chief concern for the state sector, the international sector is impacted by this, too, because it relies on quality teachers coming through to deliver the high-quality educational outcomes that parents and pupils expect.
For all in the sector, ensuring that recruitment remains buoyant is vital. It’s no surprise that this is on the GAB’s list.
Just as important, as noted by the GAB, is that teachers who go abroad are also able to return home and find jobs in the state sector.
After all, the enhanced cultural and educational insights, ideas and experiences these teachers have gained will further qualify them as attractive assets for any school.
Currently many experienced and talented teachers struggle to find a job when returning from overseas, in no small part due to perceptions that their time abroad has somehow made them unable to fit back in with the demands of state education.
The Department for Education has, to its credit, attempted to address this to some degree, but there is certainly more that could be done - from widening messaging about hiring these teachers to other UK home nations to more active engagement with multi-academy trusts and unions about helping these teachers to find and secure roles on their return.
University fees
Meanwhile, the GAB is also right to raise concerns around the university fees that some UK citizen students overseas can face when applying to universities back home.
It can make the idea of studying in the UK far too expensive to consider - denying students the opportunity to continue their studies within the British system.
I sit on the Ucas International Advisory Group and I’ve raised this as an issue for our sector many times before because there is a lack of consistency in terms of which university you apply for. There is no strict criteria for how you qualify for home-fee status.
This is not just a problem for students. For some UK citizen teachers with children approaching university age, the fee difference between being classed as a home or international student is so big that it makes the upheaval of leaving a role worthwhile.
This deprives schools of talented teachers and, given that many of these staff will have been instrumental in helping international students to achieve the grades to study at a UK university, it feels like we are penalising the very professionals who are helping to wave the flag for our higher education system in schools around the world.
Safeguarding needs
Lastly, if I were to add my own policy ask, it would be to call on any future government to engage in the work being done to improve safeguarding within the international sector by the British International Schools Safeguarding Coalition (BISSC).
Formed of ourselves, the Association of British Schools Overseas, British Schools in the Middle East, the Federation of British International Schools in Asia, Latin American Heads Conference, the National Association of British Schools in Spain and The Safeguarding Alliance, it is a group that has been formed to drive improvements in safeguarding across the globe.
For example, to reduce safeguarding risks, we are calling for an international version of the Teaching Regulation Agency and a Misconduct Disclosure Scheme for international schools (MDSIS) to ensure that we can stop individuals who should not be able to work in schools from slipping through the clear and present cracks.
We hope that any future government will engage with us on and this and support these ideas, so we can ensure that international students have the same rigorous protections as those in the UK.
No doubt any future education secretary will have to deal with, and we understand that the situation for schools at home will occupy much of their attention.
But the size, scale, continued growth and prominence of the international school sector mean that it cannot be overlooked, and we hope that those who take charge engage with all of us across the sector to support and empower all British international schools in their provision of high-quality education worldwide.
Colin Bell is chief executive of the Council of British International Schools
