Independent schools, colleges and universities here in B.C. are a long-standing essential feature of B.C.’s diverse education landscape. But across B.C. today it is independent schools and post-secondary institutions which are facing uniquely challenging problems because of the pandemic.
Many schools, public and independent, are opening cautiously even as the not-yet dissipated first wave of the pandemic may still be lingering in September.
Experts such as Dr. Bonnie Henry, while constantly recommending the cautionary protocols which must be observed, also warn of the possibility of a second wave of virus-related illness which may yet come at some point after September, especially if COVID-19 protocols are not observed.
At last count there are 563,000 elementary and secondary school students in B.C’s public schools and another 85,000 in the private/independent school system.
Public schools will be dealing with previously unanticipated issues as all school districts move to a “soft” reopening in June – physical distancing, sanitizing classrooms, continuation of some online coursework. All this will be ironed out based on recent experience but these issues will not endanger the financial future of public schools.
For independent schools, largely dependent on student fees as the foundation of operating funds, the effects of the pandemic are a much bigger problem.
Canada, because of its excellent education system, has become an education destination for students of all ages from many different countries.
According to the B.C. Ministry of Education, the number of international kindergarten to Grade 12 students coming into the province has grown by 50 per cent in the past five years, with about 20,000 of them pouring into public and private schools last year.
B.C.’s non-resident student program is lucrative, bringing an estimated $387.8 million in economic activity in 2015. Each student pays $14,000 in tuition, and an additional $900 per month to the host families for room and board.
Between independent schools, universities and colleges as well as some public school systems, international students contribute something like $21.6 billion to Canada’s GDP. That supported nearly 170,000 educationally related jobs in 2018, according to Nancy Caron, a spokeswoman for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
But because of COVID, all this could change. Some independent schools and post-secondary institutions, unsure about slowly evolving information about the COVID-19 virus and how it spreads, have now sent letters home to parents saying that students and families who travelled out of Canada will not be permitted onto the property for a minimum of 15 days from the date they landed in Canada.
School leaders, especially those in independent boarding schools, report that roughly three-quarters of international students had travelled back to their home countries at spring break to be with their families.
Almost all came back — but that was before the pandemic.
Whether or when fee-paying parents will be allowing their kids to come back in September or if they do come back, can be assured that appropriate arrangements are made for the requisite 15-day quarantine period is a whole different question and only part of the problem.
The good news for the parents of international students (if such horrific numbers can be called “good news”) is that Canada’s COVID-19 numbers are among the lowest in the world, ranking 14th at about 93,400 diagnosed infections and 7,300 deaths at the time of writing this column.
But those statistics, as awful as they are, may not be enough to reassure some offshore parents about having kids live so far from home in a country way too close to the U.S., the world COVID-19 “leader” with about 1,850,304 diagnosed infections and more than 100,700 deaths as of the writing of this column.
Adequate operating funding is always a problem for public schools. School boards always face some annual uncertainty about per-capita funding until the first major count of students takes place in September.
Nonetheless, there is always some predictability for public school administrators based on the number of students at a particular grade level most of whom will be moving forward to the next grade in September.
Independent schools, on the other hand, despite their best efforts and especially now, live with an increased degree of uncertainty about September enrolments because of the pandemic.
That uncertainty, even in larger independent schools of more than 500 students, translates into the difficulty of planning for staffing with appropriate specific academic qualifications for school opening in September.
In addition, most independent schools offer, as part of their appeal to parents and students, a wide variety of before and after school programs for both day students and boarders; performing arts, competitive sports, additional academic and athletic coaching — all these opportunities are all available and it is expected that students will participate.
But the provision of those additional opportunities also requires specific skills and backgrounds on the part of teachers. Staffing for these additional above-and-beyond-the academic curriculum activities forces an uncomfortable “wait and see” approach for independent school administrators.
B.C.’s universities, also partly dependent on revenue from high fee paying international students, face the same problem. Most will not really know enrolment numbers until September because some students who have already been offered and have accepted admission sometimes opt out for a variety of reasons — more so than ever right now because of COVID-19 concerns.
Whatever the situation by September, the pandemic is forcing all education leaders back to the drawing board to rewrite the next phase of their institutional existence.
Geoff Johnson is a former superintendent of schools.
