Tag Archives: Asia

Planes, trains, but not automobiles

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This is the second of my more light-hearted summer posts. The title comes from the 1987 movie directed by John Hughes and starring Steve Martin and John Candy. Appropriately enough, this post is being written while I am on a Boing 777 travelling over the Indian Ocean. Unlike in the film, my traveling companion is not a total stranger, but my twin brother, and our trip was planned several months ago. Our jeopardy was the result of Donald Trump’s war, as our route involved a stopover in Dubai.

Long-time readers of this blog may recall that in 2019, PC – pre-covid – together with my brother I wrote a travel book called Twin Tracks. The bok was about our interrail tour around Europe – Amazon may still have a few copies for sale. That journey was by rail. This trip has so far involved planes, a failed train trip, but with more rail adventures still to come, but no automobiles

The plane journeys, on an Emirates A380 and Boing 777 can pass with little comment, except to say that I find the A380 a much more pleasant, and quieter aeroplane than the 777, at least in business class.

So, on to the trains. One reason for stopping in Dubai was to try the UAE’s new railway line. When we booked our trip last November, before the war, we expected the railway to be fully open by summer 2026, including the Dubai station. Sadly, it is not. At present, the service runs non-stop from Abu Dhabi to Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman, bypassing Dubai.

We could still have taken the train, but it would have required a two-hour bus ride to the departure point, and another two-hour ride back. Tickets were also extremely hard to come by, and booking online required a local mobile phone number. As a result, we had to rethink our plans.

While considering the options, I reflected that the passenger line in the UAE isn’t the only delayed rail project. In the UK, there is HS2, of which the less raid the better, although most people now overlook the fact that the now hugely successful Elizabeth Line in London was also not only late, but also over budget.

The less said about the California Hugh speed Rail project or the sa=tation rebuild in /Germany, the better.

Of more concern to me is the government’s failure to open the new railway from Oxford (where I live) to Milton Keynes, creating  a connection with the West Coast mainline. The line is currently one of the most expensive freight-only lines in England.

I won’t bother with an explanation here, but safe to say it is a good example of what was once called the British disease.

Anyway, back to Dubai and a decision to visit Fujairah by public transport, for a daytrip. Why, partly because it’s there, and partly after four visits to Dubai, I had never been to that Emirate. Research for the trip discovered a public bus – really a long distance coach – run by RTA the Dubai transport authority. Interestingly, traffic congestion in Dubai has led to the service being switch from the Bus Station at Union Square on the metro to the end of the Green Metro line at the oddly named E& station, whether the E700 now departs from the adjacent bus station. White elderly males are a rare sight on the Dubai metro and, I suspect an even rarer on the E700. Certainly, on our return trip we were the only Europeans we saw on either the metro or the bus.

The ride is through desert and the mountains that separate most of the UAE from the Gulf of Oman. There is a new bus station in Fujairah, and stands alone on the edge of the town, requiring a taxi ride to reach anywhere – so, we did use automobiles, even if not by desire, but like in the film, because of the force of circumstances.

Fortunately, taxis are cheap in the UAE, where petrol costs very little, so we asked our taxi driver to take us to a restaurant on the corniche coast road. An enjoyable fish lunch later, and we retraced our steps, avoiding spending any time out in the heat that reached over 110F while we were eating our lunch. Had I mentioned 110F some years ago, nobody would have has much notion of what such a temperature might feel like: not so now.

Am teacher will travel

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The BBC is reporting that another top UK Independent School is opening up a campus in Asia. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35533953 I am sure that the move will make good business sense and possibly even help to keep down fees in their UK operation if it makes money.

The BBC piece concludes that there are now about 8,000 international schools around the world, teaching 4.26 million students, according to research by the International School Consultancy. Apparently, nowhere has growth been faster than in Asia.

Such has been the growth that the BBC article reports Thailand now has over 172 international curriculum schools, half of them following England’s national curriculum.

Malaysia has 142, Japan 233, and Singapore – which makes it difficult for foreigners to enrol in local schools – around 63. Myanmar could also become a hotspot – Dulwich College will open there next year. .Hong Kong which had 92 such schools in 2000, now has 171. Only South Korea has seen a retraction, with some international schools struggling to fill places.

However, the big growth has been in mainland China. From a dozen schools 15 years ago, China has some 530 English-medium international schools, catering for 326,000 students.

Now those that have heard me speak at conferences recently will have noted that I have said I was one of the few people that would be happy to see a slowdown in the Chinese economy because of this growth in schools. I have said that too many international schools in China could be a real drain on teacher supply in this country.

If we assume that the majority of the 8,000 schools worldwide use English as at least a partial medium of instruction and employ an average of ten UK trained teachers per school that would mean upwards of 80,000 trained teachers not available to work in the UK. Assuming a 10% growth, would mean 800 new schools a year and as a result possibly 8,000 teachers departing overseas to staff these schools, this plus the regular replacement numbers for posts in existing schools. This might explain some of the growth in departure rates identified in the recent NAO Report. 8,000 teachers would equate to between a quarter and a third of the output of training in England, although presumably some of the teachers going overseas will come from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, so the lower figure might be more realistic. Even so, anything above 10% would be worrying, especially in the subjects where there is a shortage of supply.

It is not clear what can be done to stem the growth of international schools and it is becoming a valuable export industry that no doubt also helps to steer undergraduates in the direction of UK universities. Perhaps we will need to import more teachers from overseas, but that won’t go down well with those worried about immigration.

What we cannot do is allow schools in deprived areas of England to be starved of teachers to satisfy the demands of the affluent middle-classes of the emerging Asian nations.