Teach Middle East Podcast

From Wall Street To Riyadh: Building Schools That Put Children First With Ng Yi-Xian

• Teach Middle East • Season 6 • Episode 8

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We trace a candid journey from Wall Street to Riyadh, exploring how a family‑owned school group opened Saudi Arabia’s first international Reggio‑inspired preschool and a trilingual K‑12, while building bridges between global classrooms and responsible AI. Practical stories mix with philosophy, policy, and culture to show how human‑centred schools grow in a fast‑changing Kingdom.

• why Saudi Arabia’s education landscape is changing fast
• government support and the super licence pathway
• hiring leadership across Singapore, the UK and the UAE
• clearing resources, translations and curriculum approvals
• what Reggio Emilia is and how it differs from products
• atelieristas, light studios and environment as third teacher
• trilingual learning and Global Classroom exchanges
• AI Smart Planner boosting inquiry and minority languages
• scaling tech without losing teacher judgement
• head, heart, hands: a vision for Riyadh
• community engagement, climate realities and giving back

Teach Middle East Magazine is the premier platform for educators and the entire education sector in the Middle East and beyond. Our vision is to equip educators with the materials and tools they need to function optimally in and out of the classroom. We provide a space for educators to connect and find inspiration, resources, and forums to enhance their teaching techniques, methodologies, and personal development. We connect education suppliers and service providers to the people who make the buying decisions in schools.

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Hosted by Leisa Grace Wilson

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SPEAKER_00:

You are listening to the Teach Middle East podcast. Connecting, developing, and empowering educators.

SPEAKER_02:

Hey everyone, Lisa Grace here, welcoming you back to the Teach Middle East podcast. Today my guest is Cien Jian, and he is the group CEO of Eaton House Global. Did I get that right, um Cien?

SPEAKER_01:

Maybe it's like 60%. My name is ECN. But it's okay, Lisa. It's okay. I think uh you know this is part of the fun of expanding our school group into Saudi Arabia. I've actually heard my name said in many different ways.

SPEAKER_02:

So hear me, guys. I will not edit this. You are hearing it because I want to keep it authentic. Easy. Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I respect that and I learned. Thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today.

SPEAKER_01:

That was a pleasure. Thank you, Lisa.

SPEAKER_02:

I want to talk to you a little bit about a lot of things. I want to talk to you about Saudi Arabia and your entry into the Saudi Arabian market with Eaton House. What sparked that?

SPEAKER_01:

So before joining Eton House, I had a career in Wall Street. And after five years of working at Wall Street, I felt I hadn't seen the world. And so I took a year off to travel around the world. And I really credit that experience because I think I was in a New York, Boston finance puppel. And when you got to see the world and see how an every man lives, it's I think it humbles you. And I spent two months in the Middle East. And what I will share is from the shores of Egypt, all you see of Saudi Arabia back then, 10 years ago, was landmine signs. It was these giant keep out. And it was like landmines, and because this is a legacy of God knows, uh, I think some defense arrangement. And yeah, it wasn't really known for a whole lot. And I think back then MBS was only getting started with Vision 2030. And as the years went by, about uh three years ago, it was through an arm of the Singapore government. So the Singapore government has an arm called Enterprise Singapore that encourages Singapore companies to expand overseas. And it was through this group that I had my first trip to Saudi Arabia. And I was incredibly lucky because the Singapore government actually made it a point to the regulators in Saudi Arabia that they had to meet Eton House. And I had the very unfortunate or interesting honor of the first meeting I had with the regulators, they actually welcomed me with open arms and they asked me to open the kingdom. And this was not even a few hours in Riyadh. Uh to which I blinked and I said, Can you give me some time? And they actually said, How fast can I open up a school? And I said, Well, I've opened up a K-12 international school for a thousand students with no power and no water in 55 days. And so I said, you know, miracles can happen, but it almost killed me. And I started off the adventure from there. And what I would say is I think the Saudi Arabia of old is completely different. And I don't that that's quite passer. I think anyone who's actually paid attention to the news or has had it like an honor of talking to someone who's been to Riyadh, it's not the same anymore. And I think um I often compare this to China 30, 40 years ago, except the big difference is that asset values are much higher. So people in Riyadh have had, and all of Saudi Arabia, you know, the top 20% have had disposable income since the Second World War. Having said that, it's a very diverse society, and it's a big country, you know, the 25 million people. So I think people often forget that because you get this impression that all Saudi Arabians are from a very wealthy class, but in reality, it's just like any other country. I think the other thing that people forget also is there's a very diverse society. So especially when you get to us jeddah, because of uh making hajj, you've had the whole cult the whole world in a way come to Riyadh. So it's a very fascinating place. So yeah, we started going to Riyadh three years ago. I, as group CEO, have been going down every quarter for the last three years. And I think it's a bit like an onion, you know, the the more you peel the onions back, the more you understand more about a country and its people.

SPEAKER_02:

So in opening a school in Saudi Arabia, because you know, Saudi Arabia still has a veil of unknown about it, even though it's done a fantastic job in rebranding itself and really opening its borders and inviting the world in, there is still a level of hesitation there. What was it like opening a school there now in this time? And were there any things that were different, let's say, from maybe opening a school in Singapore?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, what I would share is after understanding the needs of Saudi Arabia, and we were lucky enough to be awarded a super license by the Royal Commission of Riyadh City and also the Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia. So it's with a lot of governmental support that we dare to come in. Um, but what I would share is my my initial concern was about uh bringing in the right people. And I think the big question, because I mean we all know that schools are networks of human beings. Uh, in this world of AI, actually, I often laugh because schools are the most human of institutions and organizations. And that actually wasn't as much of an issue. So my preschool in Riad is led by one of our principals in Singapore who's from the UK who moved to Riyadh. And she used to be the principal of the school that my children go to. And the RK-12 school principal came from a school in Sharjah in the UAE. And so human capital actually wasn't an issue. And I think enough years have gone by where teachers who are interested in working in the Middle East, yeah, they're open to it. I think what was a bit tricky is sometimes, especially because we operate regio um influenced schools, and we actually, in fact, represent the region children in Singapore and China. And I often find it quite amusing how a Singapore education group represented Italian pedagogy in Singapore and China, but we do. And yeah, we actually couldn't find some of the resources we needed, and we had to ship them over from different countries, and some of it got got got stuck in uh customs for a little bit. So, you know, it's these like little things that actually get things going. On the regulatory front, we had to like get our program and our curriculum and our pedagogy approved. That took a little bit of time, that some translations were required. We are the first radio-influenced preschool in all of Saudi Arabia. I think the concept of preschools is actually still quite new. And you know, one thing I noticed when we had our first day of school was actually you could see you could feel that excitement, and we already saw that excitement because when we launched our open days and our experience days, our teams from Singapore and China actually flew down into the kingdom to actually help set things up. And yeah, just seeing the children and the parents seeing the light eyes light up, that was incredibly special.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. I think as well when it comes to Eden House, it's not a name. Well, I think it's a name that is known mostly in Asia, so Singapore, China. Tell me about the group, tell me a little bit more about the schools that you have, the numbers. What are we looking at here?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so I'm the group CEO. We have 103 schools throughout Asia. Most of our schools are in Singapore and China, most of our schools are in preschools. And if I could really simplify what we do, think of this as a two-by-two matrix. So there are preschools and K-12 schools. That's one part of the matrix. And then the other part of the matrix is that we do affordable and premium schools because we believe that you know quality education has to be accessible at different price points. And so we do all four of these types of schools, whether it's affordable, whether it's premium, whether it's preschools or whether it's K-12. And there's a labor of love. We are one of the very few school groups in the entire world that's 100% family-owned. Actually, the 100% owner is my mother, and I'm the next generation owner of the school. And so to me, it's really a calling, and we take what we do very seriously. So one of the special things that we do is that we operate affordable preschools together with the Singapore government and the Chinese government. So I get a slice and a window into how both of these countries actually approach early child education.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, that's interesting. You have any plans of going further into the Middle East or just I think uh the catch-all term I should use is uh inshallah. I like that. I like that a lot. That that that actually means it it it might happen if it's God's will.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I think quality quality is very important. I mean, we have to get things right. So we literally just opened up our schools at KSA. And I think I was pleasantly surprised about how our teams came together. And I think it's because we found great people to work with us. And I think one thing that really struck me is early childhood education in the kingdom is a bit of a new thing. I think it's a bit of an old thing, it's a bit of a new thing, and at the same time, and we're the first international preschool in all of the kingdom, and but I think what I saw in our staff, especially our local staff, is this willingness to learn. It's like this light in their eyes that that is very special. So I do believe that you're gonna see more of us at the kingdom, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that's exciting. K-12. So we're not talking about preschool because that's your forte, but your K-12 section of Eaton House in Riyadh, there is competition there because there are other very good K-12 schools in that city. What's setting Eaton House apart?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, we operate IGCSC A-level curriculum, school, similar schools also do the same thing. But I think one thing that we do very well is that we don't just do bilingual education, and in fact, we do trilingual education, so we introduce Chinese in the schools too. But one thing that we do very well is actually we have this program called Global Classroom. And what it is, is students in different countries across the world at Eton House Schools, they're partnered up with sister schools from another country, and the students and the teachers work together on a common inquiry project throughout the academic year. And this culminates in a physical visit where the students, the teachers, and maybe the parents actually fly down to visit their counterparts. And this was really birthed out of a dream of international education shouldn't start from university, it shouldn't start at graduate school. We can actually bring it all the way down to 18 months. Actually, we have we don't do 18 months right now. We I think we do it at four years of age onward. But I think it's actually something that's really wonderful. And some of the exchanges that you see, not just from the children, but actually from the parents, is actually utterly fascinating. We all want what is best for our own children, for all children, in fact. And I think what that looks like is a little bit different in each country. And I think there's a curiosity among parents all over the world because you don't really get that chance, you know, to actually have the human-to-human connection. So we've had many really fascinating exchanges and very beautiful exchanges from parents in our schools all across the world. Not to mention the children, there's some funny instances too. So once we had some of these students from China, one of our Chinese schools are visiting our school in Singapore. And so I think in China, gift giving is something that's very important. And so the children from China dressed up in the nicest uniform, ironed it, even though traveling across borders, and they presented this very thoughtful, beautiful gift to our students in Singapore who happened to be wearing just whatever they felt like wearing that day, and they just weren't used to receiving gifts, and it was actually slightly embarrassing for the Singapore. Not the students, the students didn't know, right? And it led to a conversation later on about like etiquette and about like you know visitors and like what it means actually like to actually visit a new country and gift giving. So I thought it was quite beautiful, although a bit funny.

SPEAKER_02:

No, I get that. And obviously, you're talking about that human-to-human connection, and it actually drove me to another point that I was thinking about when you were talking about that, because as much as we want to preserve human-to-human connection, AI is just pervasive and it's everywhere. And I'm really now starting to wonder how are different schools tackling it? Have you got any insights from Eaton House? How are you guys dealing with using AI in the different processes in your school teaching and learning, maybe admin? How are you using it?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so we use this program. Classroom planning is something that's complex and learning goals in schools are set. And we believe in an inquiry-based learning approach, and all of our preschools are radio-inspired. And we believe that inquiry-based education is the best way for children to learn by learning, by asking questions. And the problem that we face is a lot of our teachers, they might be new to the organization. For example, one arm of the company, eBridge, works for the Singapore government to offer affordable preschools. e-bridge didn't exist 11 years ago. Now we've got 32 schools with almost 8,000 students. And so we've had onboard so many teachers at once. And one of the concerns we've always had is how do we introduce inquiry-based education to our teachers who might be new to the organization. And so we had a very prescriptive planner that existed, which honestly, if you asked me, was really more similar to thematic curriculum out there. But what AI gave us the ability to do was I had three different people come up to me in a span of a week, two from a tech team and then one from a pedagogy team saying, Hey, we can actually use Chat GPT to give us more permutations and more options for lesson planning. And then I thought, yeah, that's a wonderful thing. Hey, let's do it. And the next week when we sat down for our catch-up, they said, Hey boss, you know, we have MVP, it's live already in our schools. So I remember green lighting it and they showed me a demo, and I was like, Wow, that's actually really interesting. Yeah, you know, keep going at this. Well, the next thing I remember also saying, like, yeah, you know, just like make sure we pilot this out very intentionally and uh focus on some of our new schools, and then let's talk about like the user group feedback next week. And I remember next week when I came back and they said, Here's live in 28 schools. We've got about more than a thousand educators using this and they love it. And I fell off my chair because I I mean I wasn't worried about AI safety and ethics because the teacher is in the loop and this is lesson planning. But at the same time, I said, wait, wait, show me this again. And I think as I dug deeper, two things happened over here. Obviously, onboarding new teachers became a lot easier. I think the other thing that no one anticipated, and I think really warms my heart, is very often when you have technological change, it kind of divides the have and have nots. And one thing that we noticed was actually the minority groups in Singapore, whether it's the Tamil speakers or whether it's the Malay speakers, it's been very difficult to find a relevant content that is current and interesting. And I think that applies to the whole pre-K to K-12 like gamut. And what this gave us was the ability to create content and like engagements that were relevant and interesting to students. So the efficacy of the lessons increased almost overnight, and the teachers loved it, especially our second language teachers. And it's something which has been amazing. So this internal product of ours, we've gone through two more iterations of this, and yeah, we've won several ed tech prizes. And in fact, we're ended running for a global ed tech prize in Abu Dhabi in November. So it's much to my own amusement. And like some of my peers actually make fun of me. They tell me, like, hey, so I hear that you're masquerading as an ed tech player now. And I look at them, I go, like, look, I'm just as confused at how we ended up here. I think our tech team has built some very interesting things, but I think this thing is something that's very unique and special.

SPEAKER_00:

What's it called?

SPEAKER_01:

The two names. Internally, we call it this AI Smart Planner, which is a very boring name, and then we also call it Illumina. And so, yeah, it's an internal product. With I've actually thought about taking this product and making it free online for schools all around the world to do this. And the reason why I haven't done it is because it's very Singaporean. And what I mean by this is it's not the content, it's how it's structured. If I were to put this online today, the amount of planning that it assumes that different people in the school at that the whole teaching team does, it's too comprehensive. I think we have to strip out half of it's not the functionality, we strip out it's actually half of what we expect a school to do. Because I think it's a requirement in Singapore, and that's how what we expect our schools to do. And the reality is that if you're trying to offer something like this and democratize it to schools all over the world, the reality is most schools don't plan to this degree.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, but I don't think it would hurt to have that level of comprehensiveness.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's not an intellectual property thing to me, it's more about like how do we offer something that people will use. And so I think to your point, you know, like I I at first I thought that it would be fascinating, and I thought something like, you know, 100,000 schools in India would be using this, and then I realized when I dug deeper into this, like, no, it's pretty complicated. We have to basically change things a little bit. And I think the other thing is that when it comes to lesson planning, I think a lot of teachers are set in their ways, and for us, I think we're lucky that a lot of our teachers are a little bit the younger and they were able to work together with their counterparts. So we didn't actually have a lot of problems with onboarding the whole stuff and the change management to actually make this happen. But yeah, let's see, let's see where this goes.

SPEAKER_02:

Listen, you might have something there that can change the way people plan. Don't sit on it, see how you can make it universal and and send it out into the others and see what happens with it. I've got a question for you, uh, backing back to something you said, because you spoke a lot about the Regio approach. What is it for people who've not heard of it before?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so it's interesting because uh Mother Sorry has become synonymous with preschools, and the regio approach is not a curriculum, it's really a philosophy. And it's really taken the early childhood world by storm over the last few decades. And uh it's fascinating because uh when you walk into a regio school, it's different. And I think the environment is one thing you hear about a lot, and there's this belief that the environment is a third teacher, and what that really means is everything is intentional. One thing I look out for as a school owner when I go into one of our schools is I think this applies to schools all over the world. The children's work, I mean, that's very important. Uh these traces of learning. Uh, at what height are they presented? Are they presented at their height or is it presented at an adult's height? Or is it a bunch of things that are printed out from the internet and pasted on the walls? I mean, we've all seen different variations of this. And I think this belief, fundamental belief in radio schools, that you know, the children have a hundred languages, and adults, you know, we kill 99 languages and force our children to actually learn ours, it's a bit provocative, but it is somewhat true. And I think very often, I mean, the typical radio answer you hear is you take give a child a pencil or a crayon, and they draw something that to us looks like squiggles, but then they'll actually say, like, oh no, that's my dog, and like a dog's eating a bone, and uh dog's actually sad because you know he doesn't have a friend right now. It's this patience and this element of time that is so unique with this pedagogy that it's like magic and a bit like a cult. So once educators come in contact with the Reggio approach and they fall in love with it, yeah, they don't let go. I think it changes the way they interact with children and to a lesser extent adults, because I think the reality is you know, one downside of the Regio approach is they actually talk about it sometimes. You're prone to uh this fetishization of children, and sometimes I think it's actually like, you know, don't go down too too far down this rabbit hole. So I think that there's several things. So, first of all, this respect for children, respect for their voices, this belief that children have a hundred languages, this belief that the environment is something that is a teacher and that we have to be intentional about these things. So, yeah, Regio Children is an organization that represents the municipality of Redual Media that helps to curate this pedagogy. And we are one of the members of the Regio Network, and we officially represent them in Singapore and China. And so opening up this school, this preschool of ours and the Riyadh has been fascinating because we are the first international preschool group in Riyadh, and on top of that, we're bringing the Red New Approach. And so, yeah, when you see it in parents and children's eyes, they're amazed. I'll give you one example. So in radio schools, you often see light studios, and this is one of the characteristics of this is instead of finding a teacher, no offense to art teachers, but instead of finding an art teacher and asking this teacher to teach art, they find artists and ask the artists to work with children. And what you see is different. You see magic. And so this role is an artillerista, and artilleristas, they you know, some of them are a bit special. We have artilleristas who work more with the performing arts. We've got artilleristas that work more with visual arts, but we there's some very special artilleristas that actually work with light, and which is iron the irony in Saudi Arabia, a country with maybe too much light. But yeah, when you have a dark room and you have the ability to actually use light prisms and maybe even fluorescent lights and fluorescent materials, yeah, this can be very, very special. It's really like magic. And so we've built little installations in the schools, and uh yeah, that's been a hit. I mean, because you see the adults' jaw drop because they've never seen anything like this.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I was just thinking about the, you know, because Montessori, as you said, is synonymous with preschool and just kind of wondered how you marketed that Reggio approach in Saudi Arabia. What did you do? Did you do anything different?

SPEAKER_01:

You know, I think it's one of those things where seeing is believing. And so I I don't think we call us it open days in our school anymore. We call them experience days because when you come inside and you talk to the teachers and you actually see what the school is like and then you see the approach for yourself. I think it's something that actually works very well. I I think you know our journey in Saudi Arabia is very much, I think, synonymous with I think a journey for many things in Saudi Arabia where it's everything all at once. And so I think my issue with Montessori, if I have one, is the original approach for the Montessori approach, you don't see a whole lot of this today. And uh I think the purest Montessori schools are very rare and far and few between. And because it's become synonymous with early childhood in general, and I think I heard once it cost something like$100 to call yourself a Montessori school. And I think that there's a commercial element to this where people have actually manufactured a lot of toys and then branded them as Montessori toys. And I I mean for what it's worth, I find some of these toys really interesting because they're puzzles. But when you talk about the graduate media approach, there is nothing really to commercialize per se. When you talk about the environment as a third teacher, you talk about bringing like things in the natural environment that you see into the classroom, you see tree branches. One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in a school is actually, you know, when in the Western countries, in temperate countries, when autumn comes and then the leaves change color. I saw what the teachers and the artilleristas did once, where they had the different colors of leaves, and it was just shades of green to red, and it was this like a rainbow, and it was just so beautiful. I mean it's something so simple. I have yet to, I think our schools in Saudi we just set up, so I don't think we have a version of this yet per se. Because I don't think they're not a whole lot of trees, and I think I I don't know how interesting different like shades of yellow are, but uh yeah, it's one of those things that when you just look at it as a child, instead of saying, hey, don't touch it, it's a museum art piece. No, your the point is engage with it, and that's something that's truly special. And I think the a purist Montessori school and the Reggio approach have a lot more things in common than different, but I think as the years have gone by, you don't find a lot of purist Montessori schools anymore.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Where's this Reggio Emilia approach coming from? Which country? Who is behind?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so uh Reggio Emilia is literally the name of a municipality in Italy. It's a small city that's uh a couple of hours' drive away from Lawrence. And I think in the 1980s, early childhood educators discovered the town and the approach. Um, a lot of what they do is inspired by a philosopher named Loris Malaguzzi. And the whole pedagogy in radio media was birthed out of his work along with the reconstruction after World War II. And so this effort of coming together to build schools, because they believe that like you know, children are the very beginning, as in like the early childhood education, the importance of it. I think in the Western world now you understand that whether it's the first thousand days, I think it's so critical. I think they've always known it. And I think in the 80s, that's where the English translations of some of the work appeared. And uh yeah, today you'll see regio schools all over the world. In fact, one of the most fervent uh parts of the regio school movement actually is in South America. Oh, so it's truly global. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, so it's it's interesting. I've heard of the approach before, but I just think for my listeners to have a full idea of or a better idea of what the approach is about. All right, so we're coming to the last question. I wanted you to kind of project into the future a little bit and to think about Eaton House Riyadh. Where do you see the school going? Like, what's your hope? What's your aspiration for it?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I think for me, I mean what we want from all of us schools is our students to have, I think of this as a head, heart, and hands analogy. So we want them to have the cognitive skills to pursue their dreams. We want them to have the heart, the empathy to work with other human beings, but also the emotional resilience that you need in this world. And I think for hands, I think we want them to be able to make a positive impact on this world. I think it's just a beginning for us, but it's already been a great beginning. And I think for me, it's really about community engagement. And I think part of this is really how do we begin? Because schools shouldn't be walls, shouldn't be castles of learning. They have to be not just a part of the community, but also to invite the community in and to also venture out. And I think the reality is there's certain things that you can't change in Saudi Arabia, the weather is one. So I think there's one thing where we want to be able to find more ways to bring the community in. And also in the six months of the year where the weather is amazing, but we also want to get out more and to find more meaningful ways to actually engage the rest of the world. I think it's also a charity element that's very important. So in Singapore, our schools, we have a charity called the Eternals Community Fund. And I think that's the next step for us in Saudi Arabia to really think about how we give back. So yeah, it's early days for us, but we're already looking into the future and we're very excited about it.

SPEAKER_02:

Brilliant. Thank you so much for being on the podcast with me today. Thank you, Lisa.

SPEAKER_01:

It's a pleasure.

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