Quote: George Alagiah

"[International schools] still prosper wherever there is a large concentration of expatriates. They are aimed at the foreign parents who like the idea of living somewhere exotic but draw the line at enrolling their children at a school where, heaven forbid, local kids might actually be in the majority. These are the same people who will tell you glibly how they love Africa. What they mean is that they love what Africa stands for in their imaginations, rather than the reality. Like the chattering classes in Western capitals who are right behind the idea of multiculturalism but make sure they live as far away as possible from those parts of the city where the cultures actually mix and, sometimes, clash.

International schools usually make a point of advertising the fact that most of their teachers are trained abroad - a not-so-subtle way of implying that local teachers can't be any good. They are stuffed to the brim with the children of ambassadors, multi-national executives and so-called development experts. And always there is a smattering of pupils from the local elite, who end up developing views and accents that are utterly at odds with the nation they are being groomed to run. These are the people Frantz Fanon wrote about, so tellingly, in Black Skins, White Masks*, his book about the false dawn of decolonisation.

The products of these schools are a part of a new world class - not an upper or lower class, not even middle, but what I like to call the global class. They inhabit a new space outside national boundaries and conventional measures of social standing. Though they may carry the passport of a particular country, their allegiance is more to a way of life, a standard of living. These people are not to be confused with the international jet set, which is made up of those fortunate enough to have come into some serious money. Though comparatively well off, the global class is not necessarily cash-rich."
-George Alagiah, A Passage to Africa, 2001

*Black Skins, White Masks can be read in its entirety on GOOGLE BOOKS.