Times have really changed. Some of you will remember what it was like to watch your friends or your neighbours sending their kids to boarding schools outside the country, mostly in Uganda and Kenya, while your own kids attend ordinary government schools. At the end of few semesters, your friends kids could express themselves confidently and eloquently while your kids could barely string a correct english sentence. The idea of quality education was tied around the ability to speak english fluently, no wonder we started to see an explosion of the so called English medium schools from year 2000 in Tanzania. I do not mean to detract by any means the quality of education in english medium schools, it is just that, English became the medium of instruction and communication and the value proposition when the students graduated. This bridged the gap between schools in our country with those abroad, which is why it is difficult nowadays to find parents bothering to send their kids to abroad for primary or secondary education.

Upto date there are still gaps among schools even in our own country. There are those which are highly expensive, medium expensive and those next to free in cost. There is no clear dividing line between an ordinary private and an international school. You can find international students attending ordinary private schools sometimes. I personally studied with two Afro-American students at a particular school, name reserved, in Arusha during my O-level. The question is, what makes some private schools international and others not?

The biggest differentiator of ordinary and international private school is the curriculum offered by that particular school. Most international schools offer British curriculum, compatible with European schools and IB curriculum, compatible with USA schools. I am not saying that ordinary schools should change there curriculums to British or IB, but they can improve other aspects of their schools to attract foreign students and parents with a little bit of strategic marketing such as telemarketing, social media marketing, mobile media and even traditional billboards or radio and television advertising.

Like any other service organisation, a school can offer education at varying levels of quality. Quality of service in a school can be measured in students per teachers ratio, performance relative to other schools in Mock (Regional), joint and national examinations regardless of its curriculum, learning equipments and facilities such as classrooms, laboratories, libraries, play grounds, outdoor leaning and relaxing spots, gardens, ICT, transport and accommodation facilities.

ScholarDream as a digital company, we endear assisting schools build and maintain effective digital infrastructure. As parents ever increasingly become busy, we continuously innovate in ways to reach and to connect with them quickly and effectively which is why we believe ordinary schools can become international if they develop a strategy.