A new international school charging more affordable fees will be opening in January next year, catering to the demand from expatriates looking for cheaper school options.

One World International School (OWIS) will be starting a new Nanyang campus at 21 Jurong West Street 81 for students from the age of three to 18.

In a statement on Wednesday (July 26), OWIS said that it will invest more than $10 million in the campus, which can take in 1,200 students.

School fees for kindergarten and primary school pupils will start from $17,000 a year and not exceed $20,000 yearly for higher grades. This is about 40 per cent lower than the average fees at top-end international schools in Singapore.

The new school will offer the International Baccalaureate programme at the primary school and diploma levels, as well as Cambridge’s International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE), the equivalent of the O-level programme.

OWIS said that its parent company had beat 12 other bidders to win a tender by the Economic Development Board for school operators interested in providing a more affordable foreign school system education.

It said that the new school will be a “multicultural, diverse international school with no nationality comprising more than 30 per cent of total student enrolment”.

The 3.2ha campus will also house a “Nature Kindergarten”, meant to be a natural learning environment for children aged between three and six. The kindergarten programme is open to both local and international students.

There will be facilities for entrepreneurship, the performing and visual arts, technology and robotics, while classrooms will be equipped with e-learning technology.

The school expects to create more than 100 job opportunities for Singaporeans in administration and services, in addition to more than 100 teaching positions.

In the statement, OWIS principal Gregor Polson said: “OWIS seeks to offer a holistic multicultural education that delivers outstanding results without compromising on the quality of teaching. While we are focusing on quality tuition as the core, we will offer a unique and all-rounded learning experience for our students.”

OWIS also has a campus at Upper East Coast Road, which was opened in 2008, making the Nanyang campus its second in Singapore.

Parents can view the new campus from Oct 15. Classes for the first year will start on Jan 2 next year (2018).

Article from Straits Times