Another jump in the number of foreign students is boosting School District 43 coffers and helping schools maintain a steady student population.
As many as 1,800 foreign students signed up to pay $14,000 to go to school in SD43 for 2016/’17, about 100 students more than last year, according to superintendent Patricia Gartland.
The largest number come from China but students from Korea, Japan, Brazil, Iran, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Europe are also in local schools, many of them at the high school level, where there is room for them because of declining enrolment in that age group.
"There's a realization now of the importance of [foreign] education to be competing in a global economy," Gartland said, noting that SD43 students also benefit from mingling with students from other countries because they gain "intercultural understanding."
Close proximity to Asia, efforts by SD43 international education staff to market the program — that was Gartland's job before she was appointed superintendent — the creation and maintenance of relationships with parents, agents and officials in other countries all help SD43 to have one of the most successful international education programs in the province, she said.
"Our brand and our school district is renowned in the province for having the top education results. We're renowned in the world, as well."
Once a pioneer, SD43 is now one of dozens of B.C. institutions attracting and educating foreign students, with public schools, private schools and post-secondary institutions all competing for kids and the dollars they pay.
But despite the competition, SD43's international education program continues to be a money-maker, contributing $28 million to district coffers last year.
As well, the increase in the number of foreign students is helping offset what could be a decline in enrolment.
Figures released at a board of education meeting Tuesday show that approximately 15 fewer students (calculated as full time equivalent) enrolled in SD43 schools this fall, compared to last year. Gartland said the number does not represent a significant drop. An October headcount found that 30,384 students were enrolled in local public schools.
(And this comes after, a year earlier, the district enrolled about 300 more students than expected.)
The district had been expecting even lower enrolment because of the large number of grads last year and stable kindergarten numbers, Gartland said, but the drop was less than than expected in part because 60 new high school students enrolled for classes at Centennial secondary.
Gartland speculated that they were either private school students or Centennial catchment students attending schools in Burnaby who were drawn to the school because of its $50-million seismic rebuild.
It will be January or possibly later before students will be attending classes in the new building because construction is ongoing.
"The building is almost complete and we're just very optimistic that we will soon be able to transfer over the classes. The soonest would be Christmas but we're not sure."
The school's technology education programs have already moved over to offer classes in the new building.
