There is room for elite international schools outside of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. This is the bet of Grupo SEB, the largest basic education group in Brazil and that will begin to expand its international school model, Sphere International School, by franchise model.
Purchased by the SEB Group in 2015, Sphere was developed from the experience of Esfera School, a unit founded in 2004 in the city of São José dos Campos, 99 kilometers from São Paulo capital. It is expected to have two to three schools in operation for the 2021 school year and reach 30 schools in the next six years.
“Apart from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, most of Brazil has very few options for international schools, although many cities have public for these schools,” says Thamila Zaher, SEB Group Executive Director and daughter of founder Chaim Zaher.
Sphere’s own story shows what the focus of the expansion will be. The development of the sphere in São José dos Campos, considered the “capital” of the Paraíba Valley, in the interior of São Paulo, shows that there is a demand for elite schools even outside megalopolis like São Paulo. Home to companies such as Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer and top universities, São José dos Campos has more than 780,000 inhabitants and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 37.3 million reais, which makes the city among the 20 largest. Brazil’s GDPs and the seventh largest in the state of São Paulo. SEB wants to find other fertile land like this.
The executives cite places like São Luís, in Maranhão, Fortaleza, Ceará, Campinas, in the interior of São Paulo, and the capitals of the southern region (Florianópolis, Curitiba and Porto Alegre) as places with little offer of international schools and public for projects of this kind. The SEB group has not yet confirmed the locations of future Sphere franchises.
Tuition fees for students should range from 1,500 reais to over 4,000 reais, depending on the city. The school will always be in the “first quartile” of a place, that is, among the 25% most expensive schools. “It’s going to be a premium school, but not so expensive that it’s not accessible to this audience we’re focusing on,” says Rafael Rocha, Sphere National Manager.