The Vancouver School Board is drawing more international students thanks to an influx of enrolment from Mainland China.
All of the Lower Mainland school districts are experiencing increased interest from parents and students in China who desire a Canadian high school education for their children, according to Barb Onstad, the VSBs manager of international education. It used to be that the Canadian embassy issued very few study permits to students from China, but that has changed over the past three to four years.
The district expects 1,020 full-time equivalent international kindergarten to Grade 12 students for the 2011/12 school yearabout half are new students, the other half are continuing studentscompared to between 700 and 900 in previous years. The actual number of students is higher than 1,020, but some students arrive mid-year or only stay for part of a year.
Full-time students are charged $12,000, generating more than $12 million annually for the VSB.
Roughly 600 of this years international students are from Mainland Chinaby far the largest country of origin, 130 come from Korea, which topped the list five or six years ago, 40 come from Germany, 40 from Hong Kong, 35 from Taiwan, 35 from Japan, 30 from Vietnam, 10 from Brazil, and a mix of fewer than 10 from 23 other countries.
Ninety per cent are secondary students with 15 being the most common arrival age.
Its been a big shift in our demographics because the Koreans tended to be younger when they came here and most of them came with a parent, Onstad said.
Students from Mainland China are typically between 15 and 17 and live with relatives or in homestay arrangements.
All 18 Vancouver high schools enroll international students, but 60 per cent attend West Side schools and 40 per cent go to East Side schools.
The Fraser Institutes controversial school rankings affect some families choices, Onstad said. [Our focus is] more of convincing students that we have great programs in our schools in the East, as well as West SideEven students who have never been to Vancouver will ask for preferred schools or perhaps withdraw if they dont get placed into some schools that they think are better in Vancouver. So our work, or our goal is to increase the number of international students enrolled at the East Side schools where programs are not as well known.
Vancouver has a high profile overseas, so marketing and advertising is not difficult, Onstad said. The VSBs international program is self-fundingits budget for this school year was $60,000.
All B.C. and Canadian school districts market overseas, usually with assistance from Canadian embassies in key countries such as China, Korea, Germany, Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam and Brazil, she said. We translate application materials into seven languages and we attend study abroad fairs organized by embassies, often together with Canadian post-secondary institutions.
The district has faced declining enrolment for several years, so the addition of international students increases available spaces, according to Onstad.
The board staffs schools with extra teachers, who are funded directly from the international student tuitions. Currently, international programs funds support for 56 teacher positions in the district, she said.
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