Global Indian school ready to meet heavy expatriate demand:

From one campus to three

Global Indian school ready to meet heavy expatriate demand:

Monday • August 25, 2008


Ong Dai Lin

ITS enrolment had gone from fewer than 50 pupils in 2002, to 4,000 students within six years, catapulting it to become the largest international school in Singapore now.

Rapid expansion at the Global Indian International School (GIIS) has meant it has grown from one campus to three: Its other two are in Queenstown and the East Coast.

And in two days’ time, GIIS’ latest campus at Balestier will be officially inaugurated by the former President of India, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.

GIIS chairman Atul Temurnikar told Today: “When I came to Singapore in 1991, there were no more than 20,000 Indian expatriates. Now I think there are about 200,000 professional Indians working here.”

More Indian companies such as Infosys, Satyam and Tata Consultancy are running part of their operations out of Singapore.

But with the number of foreigners here topping the one-million mark for the first time last year, demand for places at GIIS, which offers classes from kindergarten level to Grade 12, is no longer coming just from Indian expatriates.

Now, 15 per cent of its enrolment comprises other foreign students, from countries such as Australia, Germany and Korea.

Interestingly, this nascent cosmopolitan shift in the school is also being driven by its Indian pupils, more of whom are taking the International Baccalaureate and the Cambridge IGCSE since the school expanded its choice of curriculums.

“More Indian students want to study different subjects and this is a sign that students are becoming more cosmopolitan”, saidMr Temurnikar.

The school has added as many as 28 foreign languages such as Russian, Japanese and Portuguese for students to take up as a second language.

French is the most popular second language among Indian students, with 800 of them learning it. Mandarin is a second favourite with 180 Indian students taking it.

With the setting up of its third campus, GIIS now has 500 vacancies, which it expects to fill in less than a year.

It may even consider a fourth campus depending on trends in the international school sector and given the government’s offer last week of more sites on state land for schools.

“We never wait for a waiting list to build up ... we are always working ahead to meet the education needs of expatriates”, saidMr Temurnikar.

He estimates that if the school had not opened its third campus, which has capacity for 1,500 pupils, the school’s waiting list would “easily” be 500 to 600 students.

Last year, GIIS faced its most serious space crunch, with 100 students on its waiting list. So Mr Temurnikar decided to build a third campus.

Addressing the issue of the shortage of vacancies at international schools, he said: “I think schools have to look at larger campuses, so that they don’t have to expand every two years.

“And I think we have to proactively build the campus ahead by anticipating demands.”

Meanwhile, GIIS, which has campuses in six other countries, including Japan, India and Malaysia, is also looking to set up at least one more school overseas.

Said Mr Temurnikar: “We’ll be looking at the Middle East and particularly the United Arab Emirates region. We’re also looking at Indonesia and Australia.”

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