International students continue to come to B.C. schools, governed by federal regulations brought in last fall, but their numbers are down significantly in some districts.
In the Sooke School District, students have begun arriving for the second semester. About 60 were in the district during the first semester after staying here last summer and resuming classes in September.
“In October, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada announced that they would be allowing some international students to come into Canada,” said superintendent Scott Stinson. “The proviso was that only institutions that had a readiness plan in place would be able to welcome international students.
“B.C. was one of the jurisdictions where that was the case.”
Stinson said that having international students is a source of revenue, and some districts count on it more than others.
“We’re not overly reliant on it,” he said. “We made a conscious decision this year that we weren’t going to make significant program decisions on a one-year potential blip.”
That has allowed the district to weather the financial impact of having fewer international students, Stinson said. “We’ll see what comes next year in terms of the virus and travel.”
In non-COVID years, the district has grossed about $4 million from its international-student program, and that will be down to less than half this year.
Stinson said the district typically has about 280 international students at its schools.
“We think that we’ll probably have maybe 120, 150 by the end of the year,” he said. “So still well down from what we would normally have.
International students are prepared for their stay by the district, Stinson said.
“Each student that’s coming has an extensive arrival guide that outlines the protocols from pre-departure, travel and then the quarantine period once they arrive here, as prescribed by Health Canada and the provincial health officer,” he said.
“They have to abide by travel regulations in their own country and then they have to abide by all of the regulations that are put in place here, including a negative COVID test prior to travel.”
Students are arriving in a staggered format, Stinson said. “So we don’t anticipate … a large group arriving at one time.”
The Nanaimo-Ladysmith School District also had international students who remained in the area last summer, with about 50 choosing to stay. Seventeen more arrived in September, and another 17 came in November and December.
“Over this week we have another 57 coming,” said spokesman Dale Burgos.
Once all the newcomers are here, the total will be 141 — half of last year’s total.
“It’s considerably less and that’s, of course, because of COVID,” Burgos said.
He said international students make money for the district, but they also enrich the schools with their language and their culture.
The Greater Victoria School District said it currently has 611 international students — most of whom have been in the district throughout the pandemic and intend to graduate in the province.
The district received almost $15 million in tuition revenue from international students in 2019-20, but enrolment in the program for the 2020-21 school year is down 40 per cent.
The Saanich School District is also down by more than half, with about 50 international students in place, and assistant superintendent Paul McKenzie said the loss of revenue is “certainly impactful.”
He said there are some students who have arrived and are currently in their two-week quarantine period, and that the district operates within all of the constraints coming from health experts.
