Taiwan's best-known international school is the Taipei American School, located in the Taipei suburb of Tienmu. It is also the oldest, having been founded in 1946, and the largest, with around 2,200 students. Including some part-timers, TAS has 240 teachers.
From the early 1950s to the late 1970s, TAS served as a U.S. Department of Defense contract school for the children of American military personnel. Because of the wars in Korea and Vietnam, the United States expanded its bases in Taiwan. Enrollment at TAS reached 1,400 in 1958, and peaked at 3,000 in 1969.
Now an entirely private institution, the school depends on tuition fees--which average around US$13,000 per student per year--to cover running costs. Fundraising campaigns have helped pay for capital improvements.
The Dominican International School in Taipei, a Roman Catholic institution under the supervision of the Dominican Sisters, was founded in 1957 and was also for many years a DOD contract school. The school currently has around 800 students, with annual fees ranging from US$6,400 for kindergarten classes to US$10,200 at the high school level.
Whereas TAS and the Dominican School are thriving, several other schools that provided education for the children of American military personnel closed down in the mid-1970s as the United States scaled down and finally closed its bases in Taiwan.
Established in 1953 and closed in 1976, the Jonathan M. Wainwright American Elementary and High School, located within Tainan Airport, was the first and largest of these military-sponsored institutions. Also long gone are the Claire Chennault School in Pingtung, the George Washington School of Chiayi, and the Stephen B. Luce Elementary School in Kaohsiung City's Zuoying.
Taiwan's Foreign Schools Law stipulates that international schools may only admit individuals who hold foreign passports. However, there is no bar against youngsters who hold both foreign and ROC passports, and in recent years a great many students have been dual nationals. Often, these children are sent to international schools because their families expect them to attend college in North America, or because they have already spent years overseas and lack the Chinese-speaking and -writing skills needed for local schools.
According to Ira Weislow, assistant superintendent at TAS, around 70 percent of his students are U.S. citizens. The others hail from more than 50 countries.
Each year, TAS receives inquiries from more prospective students than it can accommodate. "There are 300 to 400 on the waiting list at any one time," Weislow said, adding that this problem is "a 20-year phenomenon."
When TAS processes applications, things like family links to the school, English-language ability and academic performance are all factors taken into consideration, said Weislow.
The school has a contract with the American Institute in Taiwan, the body that handles ties between the United States and Taiwan in the absence of formal diplomatic relations. Accordingly, dependents of AIT staff are given first priority. The children of Americans are second priority; offspring of non-Americans are third; foreign children of local parents are fourth.
"In terms of what parents look for, our main challenge is the waiting list--meeting the needs of those who want their children to study here," Weislow said.
According to the assistant superintendent, TAS is currently assessing the feasibility of various development plans. These could not only provide more space for additional students, he explained, but also better facilities, especially for the school's science and drama programs.
Not all of Taipei's international schools teach in English. Taipei Japanese School, established in 1947, is located just across the road from Taipei American School. Taiwan's only Korean-language educational facility is the Overseas Taipei Korean Primary School. Taipei European School, which came into being in 1992, has a French and German as well as a British section.
Like TAS, Kaohsiung American School has no difficulty attracting students. KAS, located in Taiwan's second-largest city, was founded in 1989.
"We are increasingly closing grade levels based upon our many more qualified applicants, and the great interest in our school," said KAS Director Peter Nanos. "We anticipate waiting lists for at least five grade levels by the end of August 2006. Enrollment has increased by approximately 30 percent in two years."
"Our projections lead us to believe that our enrollment will eventually settle at 330 to 350," said Nanos, who added that KAS might decide to offer an International Baccalaureate program.
In January 2004, KAS moved to a new campus. An initial amount of US$913,000 was spent on the remodeling project, and another US$610,000 was directed into facilities development, said Nanos. "The money has come from additional revenues from a significantly higher enrollment."
"We signed a nine-year lease for our current facility, and as part of the agreement, KAS provides ESL personnel and professional development opportunities to local public schools," he said.
According to Nanos, KAS's status as an international school made expansion a little easier. "I believe that as the only accredited pre-kindergarten to grade 12 American school in south Taiwan, Kaohsiung City Government was interested in assisting KAS to further attract foreign investment and business."
In central Taiwan, the largest international school is Morrison Christian Academy in Taichung City. MCA also has campuses in Taipei and Kaohsiung, and a satellite school in Chiayi. Together, the four locations have around 900 students.
Like TAS and KAS, MCA is a popular school. "There's a long waiting list," said Douglas Habecker, author of "Uncommon Bonds: A History of Morrison Academy 1952-2002," an official account of the school's first half century.
In writing the book, Habecker interviewed many former students. He found that for more than a few alumni--even those who spent just one year at Morrison--their time at the school had left them with "extremely tight friendships, and extremely strong impressions."
"Being in an international environment can have a huge impact on your life. It may even change the course of it," Habecker said. "International education is a very effective bridge between cultures, and international schools can act as incubators for the ideal international businessperson or professional."
Born in Taiwan, Habecker's parents were American missionaries who sent him to Morrison between 1980 and 1985. Now a Taichung-based publisher of bilingual magazines, he teaches a journalism class at his alma mater.
Habecker recalls that when he was a teenager in the early 1980s, "no more than 10 percent of the student body was of Chinese or Taiwanese descent." Now, he says, the number of Westerners and Asians at Morrison is roughly equal.
He has also noticed that, compared to 15 or 20 years ago, far more MCA alumni are returning to Taiwan to work after graduating from college in the United States or elsewhere. "This is home for them."
Some, Habecker said, "take jobs for which their skills are uniquely suited, such as in international marketing and sales." He contrasted this to the situation a few decades ago. "There used to be an assumption--sometimes unspoken, sometimes not--that international schools should prepare their students to return and fit in at 'home.'"
It is not only alumni with local roots who are returning, stressed Habecker. A growing number of graduates from Western families are coming back to Taiwan, or at least to Asia.
TAS's Weislow has noticed this too. According to Weislow, who has been working at TAS for 36 years, students stay longer at the school than before, and more are returning to Taiwan after finishing college in the United States. "It's the nature of the economy, and the nature of the student body," he said. "It's definitely a trend."
The growth of the concept of "Greater China" means the language and cross-cultural skills that can be acquired in Taiwan are very much in demand here and in places like Shanghai and Hong Kong, he said. Also, more and more TAS students have relatives in the region, typically Taiwanese parents.
MCA has had to confront an issue not faced by TAS or KAS. Established to educate the children of missionaries, in recent years a majority of Morrison students have been from non-missionary backgrounds.
If the school simply expanded to meet demand, the current 70:30 mix of non-missionary and missionary children would be even more unbalanced, said Habecker. Drawn from five missionary organizations, the school administrators have decided to focus on MCA's core values and original function.
There is anecdotal evidence, according to Habecker, that some foreign managers have refused to take up assignments in Taiwan after finding out that they cannot get their children into their preferred international school. This shortage of school places--and its potential to impact foreign investment in Taiwan--is an issue Habecker raises whenever he meets with government officials.
Copyright 2006 by Steven Crook.