As the face of ex-pats living in China changes, many families find themselves un-able to pay the lofty international school prices, but don't want to immerse their children in the Chinese school system. Is there an alternative?

"How old are you?" Shanghai Experimental Primary School's secretary Yao Zhi Hua leans down to ask Aleksander Lebois.
"He's six," his mother Isabelle answers in French-accented Chinese.
"I'm six and half," the boy corrects, his Chinese without a trace of a foreign tongue.

Preparing to graduate from a local kindergarten, French-national "Skander" and his parents, Isabelle and Ahmad, are facing the same dilemma confronting most foreign nationals hoping to raise their families in China. Disheartened by the high tuition fees, enclave mentality and the far-flung locations of Shanghai and Beijing's major international schools, they are looking for an alternative.

The Lebois' search for Skander's school reflects the changing face of China's ex-patria. Gone are the days when everyone had a full package that covered 99 percent of the US$20,000 per year school tuition. Increasing amounts of foreign ex-pats, setting up their own companies or entering into joint-ventures, find the high costs of the traditional international schools to be out of reach.

Gone are the days when people only planned to stay a year or two; China is fast becoming a more attractive place to raise a family. And parents now wish for their children to have more interaction with their host country, seeing that they may be here for the long haul. Sensing this need, educational alternatives are beginning to grow.

Of the 70-some Chinese schools throughout Shanghai, and a comparable number in Beijing, authorized to accept foreign students, the cheapest options are pegged at YY2,100/semester and YY2,500/semester for primary and middle schools respectively. In these public schools, international students attend classes with local students in Chinese, access the same facilities and receive, essentially, the same education.

Exuding the architectural charm of 1930s Shanghai, set beside a temple in the old city, the Shanghai Experimental Primary School (SEPS) is one such public school. Experimental means that it is a testing ground for new textbooks, teaching materials and methods. In addition to core academic subjects, students choose their own electives. Though their current international enrollment is all Asian, Yao received Skander warmly saying, "We'd be very happy to have him in our school. As long as he begins at a young age, his language skills will develop enough for him to do well here."

Carrying a higher price tag, the Shanghai Southwest Weiyu Middle School in Xujiahui, is a semi-private Chinese middle school where overseas and Chinese students study together. They emphasize character development, applied technology, sports and foreign language. With pride, deputy headmaster Zhang Jianzhing says, "Chinese education can be good for foreign students and they can succeed here. We have a Spanish girl who entered in the 9th grade knowing little Chinese but she took China's college entrance exam and scored in the 83rd percentile."

Public schools like SEPS and Weiyu enjoy convenient locations, affordable tuition and close interaction with Chinese students. But can they accommodate a wide variety of students with different educational backgrounds and such potentially different futures? Chinese education is still geared towards a rigorous examination system designed for matriculation into Chinese higher education. Foreign students, while wishing to learn Chinese language and culture, may still plan to continue their studies abroad.

Hoping to provide the best of both worlds, the next group offers international educational streams within Chinese public and semi-private schools. Overseas students, while not attending classes with local students, share a common campus and interact through school-related activities. Chinese language and culture play central roles. Furthermore, their Chinese educators have often received training abroad. Weighing in between US$2,500-$5,000 per semester, they cost about half the price of the traditional international schools.

The oldest and most successful of the Chinese schools with an international stream is the Shanghai Middle School. Sprawling over a 200,000 square meter campus next to Shanghai's botanical gardens, the grounds are filled with flowers, trees, pagodas, bridges and ponds. The school is 145 years old and the international program, begun in 1993, currently enrolls 1,200 students. Within their international program, 70 percent of their students use the English-language, American curriculum and plan for higher education in the West while the remainder follow a Chinese-language, Hong Kong curriculum and plan to attend Chinese universities. The reception room proudly displays charts detailing the top universities its alumni attend.

Ai Ju Primary School's international stream enjoys a central location and an emphasis on the arts. International students enjoy better facilities than TK, smaller classes and more electives. According to vice schoolmaster Chen Li, "Our proximity to the consulates plus increasing amounts of returning Chinese and children of mixed marriages have our international attendance way up. Still, we hope to enroll more overseas students and continue to grow."

While these schools all hope to bridge the gap between Chinese and foreign, there is a third type that may just eliminate it. Far more exciting and visionary than anything seen yet, Bi-lingual International Education Schools could be the wave of the future. Far ahead of her time, American educator Stephanie Tansey founded Beijing's New School of Collaborative Learning (NSCL) in 1994. Aiming to provide bi-lingual education with a maximum amount of immersion in China for overseas students, NSCL has recently been accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Employing Chinese-Western teams to teach classes in both Chinese and English, teachers and students alike are encouraged to learn from each other.

Reflecting over his 10-year stewardship of the school, current principal John Zatkin remarked, "When we began, there was a real disdain for China amongst Beijing's ex-pat community and nobody really followed our lead. That's changed in recent years and other schools have begun incorporating more bi-lingual education." International educators around the world are noticing the benefits of creating a truly bi-lingual environment with multi-cultural curricula and two Shanghai schools are following suit.

Xiehe Bilingual International School, a primary school recently opened in Minhang District, also uses team teaching, thus creating an environment where being bi-lingual seems natural. Hoping to combine the best of both educational worlds; thematic, creative and inquiry-based Western approaches are fused with Eastern approaches of high standards of concentration and discipline. According to Trevor Higginbottom, the leader of Xiehe's international stream, "We want students to really get to know their host country. We are creating an international international school rather than a national international school."

Everything comes with a price, however, and the bi-lingual schools are not cheap. The Lebois' ideal school, an inexpensive local one with an international standard of education that teaches the best aspects of Eastern and Western culture may not yet exist in China, or anywhere else in the world. Their search for Skander's school however, reveals a variety of alternatives for children of foreign nationals and hints at China's changing educational trends.

The road to educational reform is undoubtedly long, but the visions of educators like Yao, Tansey and Higginbottom ensure that the future is bright. And though the Lebois' may not have found everything they want, Skander will try one year at the local primary school. With the way China changes, their ideal school may exist by next fall.

Local public schools: Overseas students attend class with locals
Shanghai Experimental Primary School: 2,100-2,600

Private or semi-private schools: international students attend classes with local students
Shanghai Southwest Weiyu Middle School: US$3000-$3,500

Public, private or semi-private Chinese schools with international streams: separate educational programs specifically designed for overseas students with instruction in Chinese, though English is heavily promoted
Ai Ju Primary School: US$2500

Bi-lingual international schools: use immersion into local communities, team teaching, bi-lingual curriculum and multi-cultural learning
Beijing's New School of Collaborative Learning: US$6,250
Xiehe Bi-lingual School: US$7,500

Traditional international schools: Instruction in English with Western teachers teaching Western curriculum: US$10,000

Shanghai Weiyu: 99% local, 0.8% foreign, o.2% Western
Ai Ju: 92.5%, 6%, 1.2%
Shanghai Middle School: 60%, 32%, 7.6%
Shanghai Experimental Primary School: 99%, 0.6%. 0%
NSCL: 0%, 78%, 21%

*Percentages are estimations; in most schools, the international students and local students attend classes separately