Is the School “Sufficient”? When Employees Question the Local Options
When employees say a school isn’t good enough, they’re usually asking the company to pay for something else: a private school, an international school or a boarding school. An independent assessment of whether the school is “sufficient” gives HR and Global Mobility teams a fair basis for that decision, whatever the answer turns out to be.
Many education benefits policies include a version of the same clause. The company supports private or international school when the local schools aren’t sufficient, or adequate, or suitable. It’s a reasonable principle. It’s also one of the hardest to apply, because few policies say who decides what “sufficient” means, or how.
That question usually arrives in one of a few ways.
When the Question Comes Up
Several employees are using the same school, and they’re unhappy with it. In a location where options are limited, a group of employee families may all end up at one school. If they start to complain about quality, some may ask for a different option, sometimes a boarding school elsewhere.
The policy says public school, and employees disagree. A policy may expect employees in a particular region to use public schools. If families push back, the company needs to know whether their concerns are valid, and whether a private school allowance is warranted.
The policy doesn’t support international school, but the local system is hard to enter. Sometimes the concern isn’t quality but access. We cover this in Can Relocating Children Use the Local Schools?
An individual employee requests an exception. A parent may say their child “needs” private school to stay on track for their return home, or for another reason. We discuss these requests in When an Employee Says Their Child Needs Private School.
In each case, there’s a budget question underneath. And in each case, the company needs an answer it can explain to employees.
Why an Independent View Helps
Employees come to these questions for different reasons. Sometimes they literally can’t get their children into the school. Sometimes the concern is quality: the school is friendly, but parents worry their children won’t be prepared when they return home. Sometimes it’s a mix of both, with a rumor mill adding to it.
An HR team can’t easily assess a school in another country, and even if it could, a decision made internally can look like a decision made to save money. An independent assessment changes the conversation. The company can show employees that it took the concern seriously and asked education specialists to look.
We’ve seen this matter in both directions. In one case, a policy promised to fund boarding school if the school in the location was insufficient, and an employee asked the company to do exactly that. Boarding school is an expensive commitment, and the company didn’t want to agree without third-party input. We visited the school, assessed it, and concluded that it was insufficient. That had real financial consequences for the company, and it also gave the decision a fair foundation. (It was also a good prompt for the company to make that clause in its policy more specific.)
In other cases, the assessment shows that the school is strong, or that the concern can be met with targeted support rather than a change of school.
What We Look At
An assessment is shaped by the question the company needs answered, but we typically look at:
- What the school says it offers, and what it actually offers in practice
- The curriculum, and how it compares with the system the children came from or will return to
- The quality of teaching and the qualifications of the teachers
- Support for students who are learning in a new language, and for students with special education needs
- Pastoral care and counseling, which can matter as much to a family as academics
- Who the school is designed for. The word “international” has never been patented, and a school that uses it may be designed almost entirely for local students. That can be a fine school, and a very different one from what a relocating family expects. Our post What Is International School, Anyway? explains the difference.
Often this means visiting the school. A website and a brochure only tell part of the story, and sometimes the gap between what a school says it offers and what it actually offers is significant.
The Answer Isn’t Always All or Nothing
Our recommendations aren’t always a simple yes or no. We’ve recommended keeping children in the local school while adding college counseling for older students or tutoring in subjects from the home curriculum. We’ve recommended that a company use its influence with a school to improve particular services. The goal is to give the company an answer that’s fair to the employees and fiscally responsible, and that’s reached for reasons it can explain.
How Bennett Helps
Bennett assesses schools, school systems and individual students’ needs for HR and Global Mobility teams. Our consultants are former educators who know what to look for inside a school, and Bennett is never paid by schools, so our assessment is never influenced by referral fees. When we determine whether a school is “adequate,” we answer to your policy and the students in question. You can read more about our school assessments for employers, and about how assessments support a clear education benefits policy.
Facing a Question About a School?
If employees are questioning a school, or you’re deciding whether a policy clause applies, we can help you get an independent answer.
Bennett International Education Consultancy works directly with hundreds of families each year across the globe. We support families by helping them make informed decisions about the best-fit schools for their children; with our guidance, they secure placement in preschools, private day schools, public/state schools, boarding schools, colleges and universities, including schools with particular programs, such as special needs support.
