The Tianjing BISS International School seems to have found a way out
from its recent troubles, forging a strategic partnership with
Tianjing-based ETU Education. The deal will cover operations,
management, marketing, enrollment and curriculum development.
Tianjin international school
BISS, founded in 1994, is one of Tianjing's oldest international
schools. The sister school of the ISS International School in Singapore,
BISS was renowned for its strong foreign faculty, expertise in
International Baccalaureate programs and success in sending its students
to world-class universities, including Harvard, Stanford and the
National University of Singapore.
However, a few months ago it ran into financial trouble, according
to a report by The Tianjing News. Later, teachers joined a strike to
force the school owner and board of directors to pay their dues.
The local educational authority made continuous attempts to help
BISS get out of trouble until ETU Education made the decision to
cooperate with the school.Li Yinuo, the co-founder of ETU Education,
says about the partnership: "BISS is a respectable international school
with a long history and proven track record when it comes to the IB
program.
"We believe that this comprehensive collaboration between ETU and
BISS will offer two different, but complementary, education paths for
students from different backgrounds and with diverse needs."
ETU Education, which was started in 2016, is an emerging innovation
project in China that seeks to offer students experiential learning
courses by developing culturally-rich curriculums that combine China's
standard syllabus with advanced teaching methods around the world.
In this sense, Li says, ETU's China-based innovative education
efforts will also provide BISS with a unique Chinese perspective to its
localization of the IB curriculum in China, and use its global resources
to improve the learning and teaching standards of BISS.
In the past two months, ETU has helped BISS resolve its financial
problems and stabilize its faculty, ensuring that it will be back to
normal for the next semester.This summer, ETU and BISS will launch
exchange programs for both teachers and students with Singapore-based
ISS.
Elvis Tan, director of BISS, says the partnership with ETU is a
milestone for BISS which has been in China for the past 25 years,
adding: "We will continuously work together to provide the kids,
regardless of their cultures and nationalities, a better education and a
better future."
Zhou Jing, the mother of a BISS student, says she thinks the
cooperation is an efficient way for BISS to overcome its difficulties."I
think ETU is a burgeoning, promising project, and hopefully it will
bring vigor and new blood to BISS' development," Zhou says.
She says she sent her daughter to BISS in 2015 because it boasted a
high-quality faculty and IB courses."ETU emphasizes the importance of
learning Chinese culture, which is a good complement to the
internationalized courses offered by BISS," says Zhou.
The Wall