When enrolment at the school in Hazlet, Sask., slipped to a low of 40 students, the principal decided to recruit more from overseas.
Principal Christy Sletten said the dropping enrolment was “kind of a kick in the pants” for the kindergarten to Grade 12 school. She had just returned in September 2005 from a year on maternity leave when the school lost nine local students. She pitched her idea to the school division board and with its approval went to the community for support.
Her idea, based on the success of schools in other provinces, was to offer an education to foreign high school students. In exchange for $20,000 each, the community would house the overseas students, supply them with personal laptop computers, take them on trips and teach them English alongside the regular Saskatchewan school curriculum.
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Last winter, the Hazlet school added four students – two from Colombia and one each from Chile and Germany. This year the school has 11 overseas visitors for the first term and may add four more after Christmas. Sletten said this year’s students are from Colombia, Venezuela, Germany, Austria, Norway, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and Hong Kong.
“We work with an agency that does student recruitment and filters kids our way, but we also do our own recruitment.”
In early October, Sletten travelled to Thailand and Taiwan to talk at education fairs and meet with agents who connect school officials with families wanting their children to study overseas. Sletten said the Canadian Education Centre Network has offices and agents in 20 countries, which lends credibility to the process.
“Parents need to know they’re sending their kids somewhere reputable.”
She said parents are willing to send their children to Canada because the standard of education in their home country can vary from school to school. They also want their children to learn English. Some of the foreign students already know English.
Sletten praised the efforts of her community. The rural municipality has a population of only 300 people and 25 of them sit on a committee to help organize the school recruitment and home stays.
She said none of the children have reported being homesick.
“They have such a strong sense of community. They’re all embedded and have strong connections to their host families.”
Sletten said the foreign students are also changing Hazlet.
“The very best part is the impact on our local kids. When you live in rural Saskatchewan, you have a very narrow global view and lack experience.”
The foreign students have led Hazlet’s children to accept other cultures and learn about the teenage values and habits of other countries. Sletten said even adults in the community have modified their conceptions about other cultures.
She hopes the project continues and noted that a school in Strathmore, Alta., has attracted 300 students in the three years it has been recruiting foreign students.
