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.
