Jake'S View | ESF sense of entitlement an antiquated school of thought

I didn't know the English Schools Foundation was established for quite such laudable aims. I had always thought it was set up as a convenience for expatriate civil servants, just another perk of the job not extended to ordinary mortals.

But things change over time and I no longer see why it should be treated as different from any other international school. It happens to be one of the few things on which I see eye to eye with our government, a rare event indeed.

I shall also grant you there is an element of less laudable motive on my part in saying so. My wife and I enrolled our children in Chinese International School and paid every cent of the cost ourselves. It was a lot of money. I would have liked a subvention, too. Why did only ESF parents get one?

And then there is always the question of the ESF pay scale. They had to give us a glimpse of that one 10 years ago when the teachers decided that they no longer wanted to be linked to the government pay scale because civil servants were being made to take a pay reduction for a year and this just wouldn't be fair to teachers.

To establish a new pay scale, however, they first had to commission a professional teacher pay survey for comparable schools around the world. The survey found that ESF pay averaged 10 per cent above the top decile worldwide. Impressive indeed, the highest paid teachers in the world and then some. What are the standings now? Go on, folks. Tell us.