As The International School of Macau (TIS) celebrated the second edition of its annual “Alumni Award Ceremony” yesterday, a ceremony created last year on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the school’s establishment, TIS director Lorne Schmidt spoke about a regaining momentum for TIS during an exclusive interview with the Times.
“Today is an exciting day for the school, a celebration, as we awarded Alumni that we mostly haven’t seen for ten years,” Schmidt explained. “But we can also celebrate the good recovery made by TIS after the complicated years of Covid.”
With a current total of 1,340 students and over a hundred teachers, TIS is expecting to see numbers increase over the coming years, according to the head of the school.
“We’re looking at similar numbers of students at the beginning of next year, but toward the end of December or beginning of January we expect to have more companies bring expats to Macau, meaning more students for TIS,” Schmidt said.
“As those companies, especially resorts, are looking for foreign talent and they often have children, TIS is a good option for these families who are looking for a more familiar scheme,” the school director explained. “But we also see more and more local residents who want their children to go to international schools, as we are the only school in Macau that is not following Macau’s educational framework.”
“That’s why we are very confident for the future, as we expect more foreign people to come to Macau, as well increasing local interest,” the school principal added.
When asked about the recent lack of international teachers over the past few years, Schmidt was reassuring, saying: “we’re not facing this issue anymore since the Covid restrictions ended; we were able to hire 20 more international teachers since last August to provide the best schooling to our students.”
If this highlights a resurging trend for TIS, numerous universities such as MUST and UM are also expanding their programs and bring more international professors, according to Lorne Schmidt.
“After graduation, most of our students attend universities outside of Macau and stay abroad, but some of them might come back and work in Macau as well,” the head of school said. “For the award ceremony of this year, we expect some alumni from mainland and Singapore.”
In fact, only around 45% of TIS students are Macanese residents, while the others come from Hong-Kong, mainland China and Australia among other European, Asian and North American countries.
“We have around 40 different nationalities here at TIS,” the school principal told to MDT. “This is also the diversity which help us to stay attractive.”
In addition, TIS will resume its “International Travel Trip” program next year, including competitions and experience weeks among others events, in numerous different countries such as Hong-Kong, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, in order to give students “rich-learning experience, discover new culture and strengthen relationships,” Schmidt revealed.
Staff Reporter
