Tower and Town, April 2018

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Marlborough College In Wiltshire And Malaysia

(Bob Pick was the founding Master of Marlborough College Malaysia and continued in this position until retirement in July 2017. He now acts as an Educational Consultant and a tutor at Buckingham University and lives in Marlborough, Wiltshire.)

When I was asked ten years ago to keep an eye on possible overseas development for Marlborough College, I never envisaged that I would be living and working in Malaysia for the last years of my teaching career. By 2009 my watching brief had turned into a full-time job as head of the brand-new Marlborough College Malaysia.

From a starting cohort of 350 pupils entering the College on Monday 27th August 2012, we have grown steadily and now have nearly 900 pupils between the ages of 3 and 18. As yet, we do not have the luxury of waiting lists (and will struggle to do so until the Iskandar region develops more strongly) and therefore remain a recruiting school rather than a selective school.

Marlborough Malaysia nevertheless punches well above its weight academically for the simple reason that the work ethic of the pupil body is much stronger than anything I ever experienced in Wiltshire. There is a genuine thirst for knowledge and an understanding that success in life is not an entitlement. Last summer’s results averaged 69% A*/A grades at IGCSE and 35 points in the International Baccalaureate against a world average of 30 points.

The Asian work ethic, particularly among the Chinese, is well known but I have been pleased to see hard-working western pupils too. Many expatriate families come to Asia for a few years, work phenomenally hard to gain their rewards and, unsurprisingly, expect the same from their children. It is interesting to observe how many of the few underperformers are swept up by the driven approach of the majority.

One challenge which will, I fear, continue is the movement within Common Room. We have been fortunate to attract a good number of applicants for each advertised position but the turnover rate is currently around twice that of the UK school. Whilst renewal can be good and does lead to a younger Common Room, there are moments when too many high quality people move on after two or three years. I would, however, encourage beaks at Marlborough and indeed any teacher reading this article to consider venturing abroad at some point in their career.

My wife, Ali, and I have had our lives enriched by the experience in a way I could not have believed possible when it was first mooted that we might relocate. Our eyes have been opened by living and working with people from different cultures, beliefs and faiths, and this has asked questions of what we really stand for and what life is about. I could easily have been accused of not looking beyond the gates of the College, certainly not beyond the end of Marlborough High Street, before going to Malaysia. We now have a more balanced, reflective view of society and only regret not taking a leap of faith such as this earlier in our careers. It has been a truly magnificent experience and we feel very privileged to have been given the opportunity.

Bob Pick