local vs international schools

[movingtospore]

Hi there, just wondering if there are any canadians or other expats out there who have opted for local schools instead of International Schools. My husband has been offered a good job in Singapore but it is not clear yet whether or not they will pay the full fees for an International School.

I'd be interested to hear about experiences at local schools for kindergarten and grade one. Also I've seen in other posts that as an expat you're at the bottom of the heap for admission into the school of your choice for local schools. I assume this would particularly be the case if you came mid term?

I've heard Singapore schools are good, but as we are not planning on staying in the country more than 5 or 6 years I have concerns about the curriculum not being consistent with our home country.

[maneo]

Put our daughter into Primary 1 in a local school when we came to SG over 13 years ago. Made a point for her to arrive in SG when the school year started.

We got interviewed by the various principals when looking for a school.
Don't think this happens anymore.

Education was very good for the basics.
Seemed more advanced than peers back in the US.
Did have to insist that she speak proper English at home (i.e. no Singlish).

Almost no American history, but definitely more Asian history than in US.
Augmented this with "home lessons" by borrowing American history books from a library.

Daughter made friends with kids in the neighbourhood.
They would at least have some play time or activities on weekends.
Did not have to drive halfway across the island. However, weekdays after school for other kids was usually taken up by music lessons or "tuition" (tutoring). So my daughter did a lot of reading after her homework was done.

Seeing quite a few families relocating to SG nowadays not for the job, but rather for the education of their young children. So, local schools are a viable alternative. In fact, my daughter's secondary school later became known as an international local school.

Use the Search function to find the many other threads on this topic already posted.

[SandDemon]

International schools are better than local schools because they gives us good facilities than local schools and they have good educated staff. study english in london

disagree with that. don't generalize local schools, local schools are not that bad. Local schools have good facilities too and are comparable to that of International Schools. You have to compare based on prices and standards. Also, it would be good to integrate yourselves into the local lifestyle for the experience and i don't see what's wrong in immersing in local education. Apart from its rigidity i feel that Singapore's education system (local schools) are comparable to International Schools here. Have a few expat friends who were constantly moving around, kids had a brief stay at Singapore and went for local schools, they managed to catch up back where they are staying, scoring well too so i guess local schools are acceptable.

rigor of local schools would definitely be tougher than that of international schools in Singapore, speaking from experience. Might not apply to all but this is how i feel.