Gems World Academy is set to enrol 3,000 students at its new S$220 million campus in the north of Singapore. The school caters to students between the ages of three and 18 years old, and is aiming to hit full capacity by 2017. Currently the school has about 200 students and will expect the first batch of Grade 12 in 2017. Equipment and facilities will include an Olympic-sized swimming pool, football pitch, gym, climbing wall, a 750-seat auditorium, and a planetarium. In addition, all students will either be provided with a violin or a cello to learn music skills.

Although Singapore’s education system is generally designed to function as a meritocracy, Gems will buck the trend by not screening students for academic ability, seeking instead to nurture its students to reach their potential. Gems has a number of campuses around the world, with 99 per cent of its students making it to university, including Oxford and Cambridge.

Gems joins more than 30 other international schools that educate approximately 40,000 students across the country, charging between S$20,000 to S$37,000 per year per child. The UK’s Dulwich College has also recently set up in Singapore, with a first intake of 884 students in August 2014, and long-term projected student numbers at 2,500.

The creation of these schools has come at a time when places at international schools have been limited, due to high demand. We expect that new openings like Gems and Dulwich will help absorb some of this demand over the coming years.

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