It has been on the table for the past few years but Three Lakes School is getting the ball rolling on bringing international students to their school to study.
Horizon School Division Director of Education, Kevin Garinger, says they are pursuing the idea to see what opportunities exist. Three Lakes School in Middle Lake have specifically stated that they are interested in being a host school for international students.
Three Lakes principal, Trevor Otsig, says this is something that the School Community Council wants to use to grow their school numbers.
Three Lakes School has seen their school population take a dip in the last couple of years with a loss of 110 students in a 10 year period with 187 during the 2007-2008 school year down to 77 in the 2017-2018 school year.
Garinger says schools are thinking outside the box in order to gain some traction on slipping student numbers.
Bringing in international students, says Garinger, is taking advantage of students who want a quality English education in a wonderful school division.
Garinger is working with the division, the school, and the community council in order to bring the program into Three Lakes since the program has to be run at the division level.
Garinger says he has a knowledgeable network of schools both in previous divisions and through Alberta education, who has already begun bringing in international students. These are people that Garinger says he can reach out to as they begin the process of creating these opportunities for international students and Saskatchewan schools.
Data gathering is the current step they are on, says Garinger, since the process itself will be extensive and expensive. They want to make sure they are on the right track before starting to invite students to Saskatchewan.
Since international students and families will want to get to know the school before paying the tuition involved in sending their students to Saskatchewan, Garinger says trips over to interested countries will also be a part of the process.
“The goal is when we get to those places that there would be opportunity for those families to send their children to us and it would happen through organizations that are set up in places like China, Germany, Brazil. All those countries are very connected to Canada through international programs.”
There are also plenty of processes that need to be put in place to protect students while they study away from home, says Garinger.
“We’ve got great people from great communities, we just have to go through processes to make sure everything is good that way.”
Even with the many steps to come before students are attending Three Lakes School, Otsig says that students will not lack support from both the school division and the Middle Lake community.
“The division supports our school 110 per cent with whatever is needed here...We’ve talked to the mayor and village council about that and they’re on side with anything they can do to help out with our school here.”
Garinger is excited to start bringing these opportunities to international students but also sees the many benefits of bringing the program into Horizon Schools.
“The wonderful thing, of course, is the ability to bring children to Canada and into our schools and that connection with students from other countries. That’s the benefit.”
There is great opportunity with having Saskatchewan students interacting with students from across the world, says Garinger.
