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| 20th | Top international schools |
| ' | |
| Location | |
|---|---|
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines, UK, UAE, Oman, Thailand, Malaysia        |
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| Information | |
| Type | Private |
| Established | 1900 |
| Faculty | 6,500 |
| Enrollment | 75 |
| Color(s) | Blue and Yellow |
| Website | Official website |
education systems in the world. Established in November 1975 as the Les Anges Montessori Academy for toddlers, Beaconhouse has since grown into a global network of private schools, institutes, and universities, giving education to over 165,000 students from pre-school to post-graduation. Of these, over 78,000 study at the group’s flagship network, the Beaconhouse School System, while the remaining students are largely enrolled at The Educators, a parallel school network operated by the group. The group has 11,000 employees, of whom approximately 6,500 are teachers.
Through independent divisions in Bangladesh, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, and the UK, it caters to the education and training needs of a diverse group of individuals of varying ages, socio-economic backgrounds, and nationalities, with its activities also extending beyond education in some countries. Beaconhouse School System has now grown into an international company with schools in the following countries: Bangladesh, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand and the United Kingdom.
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From its initial association in the 1980s with The Moray House Institute of Education in Scotland, to its more recent teacher education association with the University of Bradford and, latterly, the College of St Mark and St John, Beaconhouse has organised in-service teacher training. Today, more than half its teachers have internationally-recognised teaching certificates while the rest are enrolled in the permanent in-service programme. In addition, Beaconhouse sends senior academics to the UK annually to pursue Masters degrees in Education and Professional Development.
Since 1975 Beaconhouse has becoming a household name in many countries, most notably Malaysia and Pakistan. In 1996, the World Bank Group, through its private sector wing, the IFC, entered into a financing arrangement with Beaconhouse aimed at the construction of new school campuses. This project represented the first time that the World Bank had extended its arms to the private education sector - anywhere in the world. The student base of Beaconhouse continues to grow at 15% per year.
Beaconhouse owns school companies and educational institutes around the world. Some of these are profiled below.
Headquartered in London, Beaconhouse Educational Services Limited, or BESL, was set up by Beaconhouse as a school management company. It also serves as a holding company for some Beaconhouse schools in other countries. BESL owns and operates the following schools in the UK:
Based in Yorkshire, England, Cherub is a group of three nurseries and preschools within half an hours drive of each other. The Cherub group was established in 1976. It hasbrought in a number of innovations, including being one of the first nursery groups in Yorkshire to implement a web-camera, enabling parents to view their children over the internet.
Pocklington Montessori School is also based in Yorkshire, close to York. It is one of the largest and most well resourced Montessori schools in the UK, featuring herb and vegetable gardens for children, Nursery facilities for children from the age of 0 to 5 as well as a large, purpose-built school on three acres catering for students in the 6 to 11 age bracket.
In an Ofsted report, the inspector wrote ‘I would place Pocklington Montessori School in the top four schools which I have inspected over the last 23 years… you have brought Montessori into the 21st century.’
BESL is on its way to acquiring further preschools, primary and secondary schools, and boarding schools across the UK and Europe. BESL also serves as a holding company for most Beaconhouse schools in Asia and the Middle East.
Beaconhouse Malaysia Sdn Bhd was established in 2004 to operate schools in Malaysia.
Last year, Beaconhouse acquired two more schools in Malaysia, bringing the total to eight, all of them in or around Kuala Lumpur. Of these, seven are pre-schools and one, Sekolah Sri Inai, is a primary and secondary school. Sekolah Sri Inai is a major acquisition., built on 2.5 acres of prime property 15 minutes from downtown Kuala Lumpur. Beaconhouse Sri Inai has undergone a process of modernisation that includes an upgrading of facilities and infrastructure.
Beaconhouse Malaysia is now in the process of establishing and acquiring further schools across the country.
In late 2005, Beaconhouse acquired Dame Theresiana de Montealegre School, a private school based in Manila, Philippines, that offers English-medium education to over 200 students in an upper-middle income suburb of the city. Apart from a sizable enrolment from within the local population, Theresiana also benefits from Korean students whose families send them to Manila to learn English and Mandarin.
Beaconhouse has acquired a second school, St Paul Learning Centre, in Cebu City, the second largest city in the Philippines. The school has been improved to meet the demands of a steadily increasing enrolment.
Beaconhouse also acquired its first school in Thailand. St George’s International School is a purpose-built school catering to the expatriate community in Bangkok. Built on a three-acre site close to the new Bangkok airport, St George’s caters to children aged 2 to 11, with plans to go up to senior school.
The first branch of Beaconhouse in Bangladesh commenced its first academic year in August 2006 and recently relocated from Gulshan to Banani, another prestigious neighbourhood in Dhaka. Beaconhouse expects its growth strategy in Bangladesh to be driven largely by start-up schools, and is already in the process of establishing a second branch in another part of the capital. It also plans to establish schools in Chittagong, the second-largest city of Bangladesh.
Beaconhouse established its first school in Muscat, Oman, in September 2006. This school has been established through Al-Kanz Education, a joint venture between Beaconhouse UK (which owns majority shares) and a local Omani group.
Beaconhouse is exploring opportunities in Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
Established in 2002 in Pakistan, The Educators is a parallel private school network managed by Beaconhouse. It imparts a standardised quality of education across the nation at a tuition fee that is less than half that of Beaconhouse. The Educators operates on a franchise model in which Beaconhouse is the franchisor.
247 Educators schools are functional throughout the country, educating over 85,000 students from Nursery to Matriculation, with capacity for more. In a short span of five years, The Educators has created over 6,000 new job opportunities.
The Educators network consists of pre-schools, primary and secondary schools, and intermediate colleges. A notable alumnus from The Educators Schools, Pakistan, include Humaira Riaz.
TNS Beaconhouse is the latest learning venture from Beaconhouse. It was launched after several years of research on how children learn (and why they often do not learn), culminating in ‘Towards 2035: The School of Tomorrow,’ an international education conference organised by Beaconhouse in late 2005 which featured radical thinkers like Noam Chomsky and Roger Schank. The ‘School of Tomorrow’ conference laid the groundwork for the establishment of TNS Beaconhouse in September 2007.
TNS Beaconhouse is based in Lahore only and caters to children from Nursery to Grade 5, with plans to launch middle school in September 2009. The group plans to extend TNS to locations across Asia and Europe.
The Discovery Center was established in Karachi in January 2002 with the aim of engaging students in science, math and humanities subjects through the creative use of emerging technologies like robotics, digital film making, and the Internet. Offering only short courses and workshops initially, the Discovery Centre launched its Smart School three years later, targeting children from Nursery to Class 6 in a full-time school environment.
The Discovery Center also offers workshops to students of other schools during the summer vacations, as well as through institutional partnerships with schools during the academic year.
The group has contributed over 6 million US dollars as seed money for the establishment of the not-for-profit Beaconhouse National University. While Beaconhouse is the original sponsor of the university, other stakeholders from the public and private sectors have also contributed.
Beaconhouse National University (BNU) was set up in September 2003. Based in Lahore, BNU is Pakistan’s first liberal arts university with faculties ranging from Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Media and Communications, and Education, to Architecture and Design, Visual Arts, and Information and Computer Technologies. It has an international faculty that has come from England, Holland, Canada, France, Germany and other countries, apart from some of Pakistan’s academics and intellectuals.
The University’s Vice Chancellor, Sartaj Aziz, is the former Finance Minister of Pakistan, while its Board of Governors counts amongst its members Nasreen Mahmud Kasuri (chairperson of Beaconhouse), Parvez Hassan (corporate lawyer and social activist), Shahid Kardar (economist and former Finance Minister), Hussain Dawood (industrialist), and others who have associated themselves because of its non-profit status. Beaconhouse National University was awarded a charter by the Government of Punjab in July 2005, giving it degree awarding status.
Based at a temporary facility in the city, the University has a permanent campus under construction on a 35-acre estate on the outskirts of Lahore, designed by architect Nayyar Ali Dada. The University expects to start its move to the new campus by September 2009.
Now in its fifth academic year, BNU has courses in the liberal arts, fine arts, textile and jewellery design, and architecture.
The group is involved in a number of activities that extend well beyond education.
Beacon Energy Limited is the group’s power generation company that has leveraged on the Government of Pakistan’s alternate energy policy. It will be the first publicly listed company from the Beaconhouse Group.
BEL is setting up a 50 megawatt wind farm in the district of Thatta, which is in the Sindh province of Pakistan, at a cost in excess of 125 million dollars. Electricity will be sold to the Central Power Purchasing Agent (CPPA) at the National Transmission and Distribution Company (NTDC).
The project benefits from a sovereign guarantee for the purchase of power from the government.
Beaconhouse Estates was established in 2002 to provide affordable housing for the employees of the Beaconhouse Group. Employees were offered the opportunity of purchasing plots of land at rates below market price. Beaconhouse Estates comprises over 1,000 residential plots of 250 and 500 square yards, along with other public amenities like parks, playgrounds, and shopping complexes.
Premier Trading Services was established in 1995 and is the commercial wing of the group. PTS comprises Premier Trading and Premier Bus Service.
Premier Trading is engaged in hire-purchase services, printing and distribution of books and stationery, production of school uniforms, and design and production of ‘skins’ for outdoor publicity.
Premier Bus Service, now a major division of Premier Trading, was started in 2003. It provides premium transportation services to the general public of Lahore and, with over 240 buses, is the second largest urban transportation provider in Pakistan.
After the October 2005 earthquake that devastated the northern areas of Pakistan, Beaconhouse donated Rs. 10,000,000 to the President’s Earthquake Relief Fund, of which Rs. 3,000,000 was raised through the contribution of one day’s salary by Beaconhouse staff. By mobilising its staff and students to organise school-based activities throughout the country, it raised a further Rs. 30,000,000 for the reconstruction of a government school in Chinari, a village that was very badly hit by the earthquake.
The construction was completed by Beaconhouse who handed over the Chinari Boys’ High School to the Education Department of the Govt. of Azad Jammu & Kashmir in May 2008.
Some initiatives include supporting NGO and government schools in teacher training and capacity building initiatives, as well as the donation of computers, furniture, books, and other equipment to schools for underprivileged children. Senior students from Beaconhouse are also encouraged to participate in local community service programmes.
More than 100,000 students have graduated from Beaconhouse Schools.
and many of them ended up earnung millions.
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  | Official site - Beaconhouse School System |
| | Beaconhouse Official Website - Beaconhouse School System |
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