Education | Stribbell to leave TIS leadership next school year

Howard Stribbell

The International School of Macau commemorated its 15th anniversary yesterday, celebrating its growth from 58 students to the current 1,200 students who come from 40 different countries.

The 15th anniversary celebration included student performances, a recognition of achievements of its students and staff, highlights of the new North Wing and a formal “thank you” to the Macau Foundation, the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, and the Macau University of Science & Technology Foundation for their support in construction of the North Wing building.

Head of School Howard Stribbell noted that the school will soon unveil a plaque to thank the institutes for helping build the North Wing, which fully opened in September last year.

Speaking to the press, Stribbell revealed that an educator from Alberta, Canada – Mark Lockwood – will be replacing him as the head of school by the next academic year.  “[He was] able to meet students, staff and team. Those connections and transitions are well underway,” said the head of school.

According to Stribbell, he will be stepping down by the end of the academic year, but will continue to be involved in the school, becoming a supervisor and beginning a role on the school board. 

TIS had seen continuous growth in the number of its students in the past 15 years.

The South Wing can only hold 1,000 students, thus the school head noted that they had to limit the maximum students the school can take.

The recently constructed North Wing – which opened in September 2017 – will increase capacity to 1,600 students.

“We are adding classes at pre-kindergarten, junior kindergarten, Grades 1 to 3 and Grade 6, so there are more seats next year than ever before,” said the head.

Questioned whether TIS aims to try to accommodate 1,600 students for the next academic year, Stribbell said, “No, we’re trying to do modest growth. Our plan for next year is to have 1,350 students.

Meanwhile, the school head admitted that the biggest challenge schools face nowadays is to be relevant in the current market.

“We’re using an outdated mechanical system of education,” he explained.

“We don’t want to live in a world [where] we’re teaching kids anything that can be looked up on Google. We want to teach them skills that they need for this age.”

TIS is set to increase its tuition fee by 7 percent next year to help offset the additional costs of the North Wing building, and also to assist in bringing some new teachers in to help improve its programs.

Students performing during yesterday’s event