1、Tens of thousands of middle-class parents from around the world are paying thousands of pounds a year to send their teenage children abroad for an education at private schools in English-speaking countries.Each nations moneyed class has a different motivation, say head teachers and admissions tutors
2、 in the UK, US and New Zealand. Fees can be as much as 20,000 ($39,460, 26,510).South Korean parents top the list for their levels of ambition, say many schools. Michael Gary, head of admissions at the co-educational Phillips Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, one of the top-performing US schools in te
3、rms of Ivy League admissions, concludes: “Theyre very serious about their education. Their mindset is: Exeter, Harvard or bust.” Chinese parents value academic rigour highly, with many UK-educated children going on to Britains top-tier “Russell Group” universities to study science and maths. But the
4、y also want to immerse their children in a “less deferential and didactic” western education, says Philip Evans, headmaster at Bedford School for boys in Britain, whose intake is 14 per cent from overseas.Some German parents “seem increasingly despairing of the German system, which offers large clas
5、ses, surprisingly weak discipline and little extracurricular activity”, says Mark Eagers, headmaster at the co-educational Box Hill School, where foreign pupils fill about a quarter of the class.But what foreign parents have in common is an eagerness to see their children educated with Britons rathe
6、r than many other foreigners. Harrow School, a boarding school for boys in London, “could fill itself entirely with overseas applicants”, says Barnaby Lenon, the headmaster. However, it “informally” sets a limit to the proportion of foreigners at “about 12 per cent”, primarily “because overseas pare
7、nts themselves do not want a large number of boys of their own nationality”. From a practical point of view, Mr Lenon says, parents want their boys to learn English well, which is more likely if they are not associating with their compatriots. Less tangibly, heads say children have come to British p
8、rivate schools to enjoy an unalloyed “British” education.Many British schools cannot afford the same scruples. Some rely on overseas pupils for a third or more of their intake. One head says that unless the situation is well managed, it creates “ghettos” of pupils who make slower progress at English
9、. In the worst cases, he says foreign business is propping up schools that do not provide a good education.Parents afraid of sending their children away to a far-off land can instead opt for enrolling them in their own country, at one of a multiplying number of academies linked to British schools, u
10、sually through a franchise. There is, for example, a Harrow International Bangkok and a Harrow International Beijing, in a franchise owned by Daniel Chiu, a Chinese businessman. The school demands safeguards, says Mr Lenon, to ensure the quality of education is equal to that provided in London. 世界各地
11、数以万计的中产阶级父母正在以每年成千上万英镑的代价，将自己十几岁的孩子送到英语国家的私人学校接受教育。英国、美国与新西兰的校长及招生负责人表示，每个国家的富裕阶层都有着不同的动机。学费最高可达 2 万英镑（合 3.9 万美元）。很多学校表示，韩国父母对孩子的期望程度无人能及。在新罕布什尔州埃克塞特，菲利普斯学院(Phillips Academy)的招生负责人迈克尔格雷(Michael Gary)得出结论：“他们对待教育非常认真。他们的思想是：到了埃克塞特，不上哈佛毋宁死。”菲利普斯学院是一所男女合校的学校，该校毕业生考取常青藤盟校(Ivy League)的人数在美国名列前茅。中国父母非常重视严
12、谨和高质量的教育，很多在英国受教育的中国学生进入了英国最优秀的“罗素联盟”(Russell Group)大学，学习科学或数学。但贝德福德学校(Bedford School)校长菲利普埃文斯(Philip Evans)称，他们也想让孩子在“相对不是那么拘谨与说教”的环境中接受西方教育的熏陶。该校有 14%的学生来自海外。鲍克斯希尔学校(Box Hill School)校长马克依格尔斯(Mark Eagers)表示，一些德国父母“似乎对德国教育系统感到越来越失望，那里的班级规模很大，而且令人吃惊地缺乏纪律及课外活动。”鲍克斯希尔学校约有四分之一的学生是外籍学生。但外国父母的共同点是，他们都希望自己
13、的孩子和英国人而不是其它外国人一起接受教育。哈罗公学(Harrow School)是伦敦的一所寄宿男校。该校校长巴纳比勒诺(Barnaby Lenon)表示：“申请入学的海外学生完全足以填满整个学校。”但是，该校“非正式”地定下了一个 12%外籍学生的比例上限，这主要是“因为海外父母自己不愿看到很多和他们同一国籍的孩子。”勒诺表示，从一个实用角度看，父母希望自己的孩子能够很好地学习英语，而如果孩子周围没有本国朋友，就更容易做到这一点。校长们表示，另一个相对不那么易懂的原因就是，孩子进入英国私人学校是为了享受一个纯粹的“英国”教育。很多英国学校无法做到同样挑剔。一些学校要依赖海外学生来填满逾三分之一的位置。一位校长表示，除非这一局面得到很好的控制，否则，将会产生学生“贫民窟”，在那里，学生的英语学习进展缓慢。他表示，在最糟糕的情况里，海外生源正在支撑着一些无法提供良好教育的学校。害怕把孩子送到一个遥远国度的父母，可以转而选择让孩子在本国入学，进入与英国学校有联系的学校。它们通常是一些加盟学校，数量正越来越多。例如，曼谷和北京都各有一所哈罗分校，这两所加盟分校的老板是华裔商人 Daniel Chiu。勒诺表示，该校要求分校拥有教学质量保障措施，以保证它们的教学质量可以与伦敦媲美。
