With program ending, official expects fewer international students will come to province

ST. JOHN'S - There may be fewer international students in the province's classrooms after the provincial government announced Tuesday it will end the program that recruits students and billets them in homes.

Brian Shortall, the executive director of the Newfoundland and Labrador School Boards Association, said the end of the program was regrettable. A review that raised concerns with the risks associated with the homestay program was released this week, saying that among other concerns, criminal checks on the people involved were not complete.

The province will continue to allow international students to pay a fee and attend the Newfoundland and Labrador school system, but the International Student Education program will be phased out after this year.

"The homestay program as well as the academic program almost have to go hand in hand, so it's obviously going to complicate the placement of international students in our schools and throughout the provinces," Shortall said.

Education Minister Joan Burke said she hopes that independent agents will move in to fill the gap left by the program when it is terminated. "(Students) will probably work through agents and connect back into the communities through non-profit groups or businesses that set up here in the province," Burke said.

"It's be probably more of a private industry, verses the school boards taking on that responsibility."

Without the province doing active recruitment, Shortall said there will clearly be a decease in the number of students available. He said the program provides a great benefit to both local and international students.

"The international students learn about Canada, they learn about Newfoundland, about our culture and our traditions, and vice versa," he said.

"Having international students in class, our own students are exposed to the values, and the cultures, and the traditions, and the histories of their age peers from other distant parts of the word. So it's a positive thing."

The program will continue for this school year, with 82 students currently in the homestay program.

Burke said the province cannot continue to provide the service because it is outside of the mandate of the Education department and the school boards.

The program review found that the assessment of the homestay families, the documentation of the process, and monitoring of the students in the homes were all lacking.

"I personally reviewed the files myself when they came into the office, so there is ... probably the best intentions, I don't think that the work was being done and documented appropriately," Burke said.

Gary Maxwell Young of Conception Bay South, faces numerous charges in connection with the program, including fraud under $5,000 and forgery.