Newman Huo
SHENZHEN is planning to build a new international school by the end of 2010, Mayor Xu Zongheng said at a conference Friday.
The new school, a branch of Shenzhen Foreign Languages School, will be located within the Shenzhen Bay reclaimed land area in Nanshan District.
Official statistics show that the city now has more than 9,000 international students from more than 40 countries and regions.
More than 2,600 are from countries such as the United States, Britain, India, Japan and South Korea, and the rest are from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao.
Statistics also show that a total of 1,510 are studying in the city’s four international schools, and the rest in the city’s public and private schools.
The four are Shekou International School, QSI International School of Shekou (QSI), Korean International School (KIS) and Japanese School of Shenzhen (JSS).
Currently, Shekou boasts two of Shenzhen’s most well-known international schools, including SIS and QSI.
Founded in 1988, SIS is the oldest international school in Shenzhen. It has seen the number of pupils rise to 550, from 34 countries and regions, this year, compared to 12 in 1988.
QSI, operational in 2001, enrolled more than 800 students from 40 countries and regions this year, up from only 21 students when the school opened in August 2001.
KIS, established in Futian District in 2004, takes in 150 students from South Korea. JSS, opening in Shekou this June, recruits 150 Japanese children.
Another international school, Shenzhen American International School (SAIS), was approved by the Ministry of Education in 2005, but has not been built because of the land problem.
A joint-venture school between Nanshan District and New Brunswick Education Department in Canada, International School of Sino-Canada (ISSC) was established in September 2002. The school is still going through the application procedures under the Ministry of Education.