Beaconhouse School System
The Beaconhouse Group is one of the largest privately owned education systems in the world and the largest private-sector school network in Asia. 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 100,000 students from pre-school to post-graduation.Many of these students study at the group’s flagship network, the Beaconhouse School System, while others are 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
History
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 master's degrees in Education and Professional Development.In 1996, the World Bank Group, through its private sector wing, the International Finance Corporation, 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.
Nasreen Mahmud Kasuri (chairperson of Beaconhouse)
School network
Beaconhouse owns school companies and educational institutes around the world. Some of these are profiled below.Pakistan
Main article: Beaconhouse School System (Pakistan)
Beaconhouse School System in Pakistan is a group of private fee-paying academic institutions located in more than 30 cities. These institutions collectively provide preschool education, primary education, secondary education and preparation for the international General Certificate of Education (GCE) and local Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations.Beaconhouse operates campuses for students of varying ages in the following Pakistani cities: Abbotabad, Bahawalpur, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Hafizabad, Islamabad, Banigala, Jhang, Jhelum, Karachi, Kharian, Lahore, Latifabad, Mandi Bahauddin, Mardan, Mirpur, Multan, Nowshera, Okara, Peshawar, Qasimabad, Quetta, Rahim Yar Khan, Rawalpindi, Sadiqabad, Sahiwal, Sargodha, Sheikhupura,Larkana, Sialkot, Sukkur, and Wah Cantonment.[3]
United Kingdom
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:Cherub Nurseries and Preschools
Based in Yorkshire, England, Cherub is a group of three nurseries and preschools within half an hour's drive of each other. The Cherub group was established in 1976. It has brought 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
Pocklington Montessori School is 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, and a large, purpose-built school on 3 acres (12,000 m2) catering for students in the 6 to 11 age bracket.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.
Newlands School
Newlands School is located in Seaford, East Sussex. The school was purchased by Beaconhouse in July 2009; it incorporates Nursery ages 0-5, a Prep School 5-13 and Manor School 13-18 including both GCSE's and A levels.Malaysia
The Beaconhouse School System was the first Pakistani education system to cross borders to export education to Malaysia.[2] Beaconhouse Malaysia Sdn Bhd was established in 2004 to operate schools in Malaysia.Beaconhouse owns eight schools in Malaysia, all of them in or around Kuala Lumpur. Of these, seven are preschools and one, Sekolah Sri Inai, is a primary and secondary school situated 15 minutes from downtown Kuala Lumpur. Beaconhouse Sri Inai has undergone a process of modernisation that includes upgrading its facilities and infrastructure.
Beaconhouse Malaysia is now in the process of establishing and acquiring further schools across the country.
Philippines
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.
Thailand
St George’s International School is a purpose-built school catering to the expatriate community in Bangkok. Built on a 3-acre (12,000 m2) 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.Bangladesh
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 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.Oman
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, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
The Educators
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.
The Educators network consists of preschools, primary and secondary schools, and intermediate colleges. TNS Beaconhouse
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.[4] The ‘School of Tomorrow’ conference laid the groundwork for the establishment of TNS Beaconhouse in September 2007.
TNS Beaconhouse is based in Lahore, Pakistan 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 Smart School
The Discovery Center was established in Karachi, Pakistan 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.
Beaconhouse National University
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 a 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.
