Beaconhouse To Invest US$45 Million To Acquire Schools In Sea

By Sharifah Pirdaus Syed Ali KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 8 (Bernama) -- The UK based-Beaconhouse School System (BSS), an international private school network, will invest US$45 million to acquire schools in Southeast Asia (SEA) as part of its expansion into the region. Regional Director Syed Jahanzeb Shah Syed Himayet Ali Shah said BSS currently operated in the United Kingdom, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Oman, United Emirates, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia with a student strength of more than 300,000 students. In SEA, BSS had already invested up to US$100 million in four schools in Thailand, four in the Philippines, nine in Indonesia and 12 in Malaysia. "We are also looking at other markets like Vietnam and would expand in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines," he told Bernama. In Malaysia, Beaconhouse's all 12 schools were concentrated in the Klang Valley comprising two internationals, two private schools that used the national curriculum and eight kindergartens. Beaconhouse is now in the midst of finalising negotiations to make fresh acquisition in main cities of Kota Kinabalu (in east Malaysian state Sabah), Kuching (of east Malaysian state Sarawak) and Johor Bharu (southern state Johor)with an investment of US$24.72 million (RM100 million) to commence school operations in these states. Syed Jahanzeb said Beaconhouse Malaysia was also looking at expansion options in the Klang Valley and will add another international school and a premier kindergarten within this year. "In Malaysia, we are targeting to double our student strength in the next three to four years from the current 3,000 students. "If we acquire one or two schools in the process we might be able to achieve it within a year," he said, adding that demand for private education was increasing tremendously in Malaysia, judging from the growing number of private and international schools which had doubled in the last five years. In 2010, he said there were about 57 private/international schools with a student population of about 20,000 students but that number had more than doubled to 150 schools with 40,000 students by 2014. The rationale behind the enormous growth was due to demand and expectation from parents who were looking for English-based teaching, more holistic education to prepare their children for the international job market as well as the increase in household income which made private education more affordable. "At BSS, we aim to cater to the middle to high-income earners like engineers, lawyers and doctors and deliberately keep our fees low compared to others, but did not compromise on quality but emphasised on affordability," said Syed Jahanzeb. He added that BSS charged between US$2,224 (RM9,000) and US$3,706 (RM15,000)a year for its schools adopting the national school syllabus while parents paid between US$2,965 (RM12,000) and US$4,942 (RM20,000) a year to educate their children in Beacon's international schools. --BERNAMA