Affordable fees, education quality fuelling boom

Enrolment and number of such schools have risen 11 per cent in the past five years

- Hazlin Hassan and Zunaira Saieed

When South Korean national Maryanna Kim was offered a job in Malaysia, one of her key motivations for saying yes was the opportunity to enrol her children in the international schools in the country.

Her two daughters, aged 12 and 15, had been attending private elementary school in Seoul.

Ms Kim herself had studied at an international school in Kuala Lumpur in the 1990s for five years, as her father was posted there for work.

Her positive personal experience made sending her children to an international school in Malaysia a top priority.

“I wanted to raise my daughters as global citizens, exposed to diverse ethnicities and religions – something that Korean international schools, with over 95 per cent local enrolment, don’t offer,” said the 45-year-old, who works as the chief communications officer at Capital A, formerly known as AirAsia Group.

It does not hurt either that the fees for international schools in Malaysia are around 30 per cent less compared with those in Seoul, said Ms Kim, who has been living with her family in Kuala Lumpur since 2019.

Her younger daughter attends Alice Smith School in the capital city, and the older one goes to Epsom College in south-west Negeri Sembilan state, which has boarding facilities.

Malaysia’s international schools are welcoming more students like Ms Kim’s children, with the sector gaining popularity among foreign families who see it as an option for quality education at a more pocket-friendly price compared with their home countries.

In the five years to July 2024, enrolment numbers at Malaysia’s international schools have increased by 11 per cent to a total of 111,185 students, according to the British-based ISC Research, which collects data on the global international school industry.