International students concentrated in Lower Mainland and Greater Victoria, report says

A report by the B.C. Teachers Federation saysmillions of dollars in revenue brought infrom international students is unfairly concentrated in 10 school districts in Metro Vancouver and Greater Victoria.

According to the report,the gross revenue for B.C.'s school districtsfrom international tuition totalled more than $250 million during the past school year. The province saidthat the net revenue from international tuition inK-12schools was $106 millionafter expenses.

Larry Kuen, the federation's research director and thereport's co-author,saidefforts should be made to bring international students to areas outsidethe Lower Mainland and other parts of Vancouver Island.

According to the Ministry of Education, international students bring many social and economic benefits to an area; roughly $3.5-billion to the economy and foster over 29,000 jobs in B.C.

'Concerned about the inequalities'

Yet Kuehn saidthe majority of themoney is concentrated in just 10 districts. Four of those districts, West Vancouver, Coquitlam, Rocky Mountain and Burnaby receive at least 10 per cent of their revenue from foreign students.

That's not the case in other regions of the province, he said.

"Many other districts have no international students [and]get no extra funding because of that," saidKuehn. "And so we're concerned about the inequalities that are produced by that."

In the 2018 school year, international students made up threeper cent of B.C.'s student population, a oneper cent increase from 2012 according to the province.

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The ministry says it will continue to support international education but schooldistricts are responsible for setting their own international education policies.

Meanwhile, Jason Ellis, who teaches at the University of British Columbia'sfaculty of education, says public schools should focus on public education.

"Their staff are spending a lot of time or some time at least seeking out international students recruiting them and bringing them in."