A lack of cultural diversity and educational continuity are the two major problems facing local international schools, educators pointed at an international education symposium held in Shanghai yesterday.

Dr Betty Chan, director of the Hong Kong-based Yew Chung Education Foundation, said the most important task for international schools is to create an education environment that incorporates both Chinese and Western culture.

"Looking into the high-tech needs of the 21st century, what we need is a new kind of international school based on the Chinese civilization with Western cultural traits," said Chan, adding that the model should be neither mono-culture nor Western.

Currently, more than 10,000 foreign children study at 25 foreign schools in the city and 150 local elementary schools have been approved to enroll foreign students.

But most international schools are more like a national school operating in a foreign country, educators said.

Chan said international schools might look at having both Chinese and Western teachers on their faculties.

Children of expat families that move from country to country on a regular basis also suffer from a lack of education coherence, said Jeff Thompson, a professor of education at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom.

"International schools usually regard mobile children as their major body, but disregard their education continuity," Thompson said.

He says many schools could solve that problem by adopting an internationally recognized qualification system, such as the International Baccalaureate Diploma.

(Shanghai Daily News November 3, 2004)