Singapore-based Jaspal Sidhu is the founder and chief executive of the Singapore International School/Singapore Global School Group (SISG, estb.1996), a chain of 12 K-12 schools spread across Indonesia and Korea. With all SISG schools affiliated with the premier Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE), UK and International Baccalaureate (IB), Geneva examination boards, SISG is steadily winning plaudits and encomiums in south-east Asia for providing internationally benchmarked K-12 education at affordable price. 

Newspeg. Sidhu was in India in March to finalise a strategic partnership between SISG and Sanjay Padode, secretary and CEO of the Mumbai/Bangalore-based IFIM Group of Institutions which runs the top-ranked IFIM Business School, Bangalore. Under the agreement, SISG will manage and operate IFIM Group’s mint-new Vijaybhoomi International School, sited in Karjat, a scenic hill town on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Set on an emerald green pollution-free 20-acre campus designed by celebrity architect Alok Shetty, VIS is all set to admit its first batch of students in June this year. A wholly residential school equipped with a plethora of sports and games facilities, VIS — a mere 120-minutes drive from downtown Mumbai — also offers a weekly board plan (annual fee: Rs.5 lakh).

History. A second generation Singapore national, Sidhu is an engineering graduate of the National University of Singapore with an MBA from the University of Hull, UK, who began his career with mining conglomerate Bayan Group in Jakarta, the administrative capital of Indonesia (pop. 220 million). “Although my father was a doorman of a bank in Singapore, he spared no expense to provide me and my two brothers the best education possible because he believed in the transformative power of education. While I was employed as a senior executive with Bayan, my two children were enrolled in the elite Jakarta International School (JIS) which charged an astronomical US$25,000 (Rs.16 lakh) per year. That’s when the idea of offering international education at affordable price came to me. I quit my job and started the first Singapore International School in Jakarta in 1996. SIS offers Cambridge and IB education — just like JIS — but at $15,000,” says Sidhu. 

With the first affordably priced (“because it’s tightly managed”) school evoking enthusiastic public response, Sidhu was inspired to roll out several other SIS schools across Indonesia and the region. “The first SIS school charged $15,000 per year. In 2006 I halved the tuition fee to start my first school outside Jakarta, halved them again to establish schools in smaller cities across Indonesia,” he says.

Sidhu’s affordably priced international schools attracted the attention and investment of $15 million (Rs.96 crore) from the International Finance Corporation, a member institution of the World Bank which funds private sector projects. Today the SISG network comprises 12 international schools in Indonesia and Korea with an aggregate enrolment of 3,500 students and 400 teachers.

Direct talk. “The unique feature of SIS schools — and VIS — is that they follow the highly-successful Singapore K-12 education model which focuses on providing children a well-researched responsive curriculum, well-defined learning outcomes and professional development of teachers. Moreover all our schools focus on developing 21st century skills in children — perseverance, analytical thinking, collaboration/communication and entrepreneurship. Our partnership will enable VIS to become member of an international group of schools and benefit from continuous teacher and student exchanges,” says Sidhu.

Future plans. Having established SISG’s first footprint in the Indian sub-continent where in his opinion the latent demand for affordably priced education is “huge”, Sidhu is all set to roll out the SISG model in other geographies “We have recently raised private equity from the Abraaj Group, Dubai and are all set to go on an expansion spree in Asia. Our mission is to establish several schools in India with the target of operating 25 schools across Asia by 2022,” says this can-do education evangelist. 

Summiya Yasmeen (Bangalore)

Also read: Vijaybhoomi University: A liberating force in education, whose time has come!