The pandemic related Canadian border closure closed doors to many international students but now the Upper Grand District School Board is ready to bring them back into their schools.
A completed attestation form is required to receive international students per federal and provincial requirements and the board placed and passed a motion at its monthly board meeting Tuesday to support the attestation to receive international students and show support for its ongoing International Student Program (ISP) which welcomes students around the world into their schools.
Doug Morrell, superintendent of education with the UGDSB stressed the importance of the ISP program on Tuesday's board meeting because of the diversity it supports, the numbers of students it brings to the area and the teacher staffing it assists within schools.
“I’m incredibly ready to say that our program will be safe for our Canadian students and our communities because of the process that students have to follow from other countries. In fact, I should say that if a Canadian was returning to the country, they would have to go through the same process,” said Morrell.
In the summer of 2020, 209 international students completed the school year either from their home country or from Canada.
As of now, there are 109 returning ISP students, 12 new ISP students, and 24 ISP students participating remotely from their home countries— some who are staying up at odd hours of the night to participate in remote learning here.
ISP students arriving at UGDSB schools would have to go through a federally implemented quarantine period and communicate with local health authorities. They are also required to complete anti-racism stigma training. UGDSB ISP students will be quarantining at The Canadian Homestay Network to complete their safe arrival protocol.
Morrell added that most of the students will be required to quarantine in their home country prior to their arrival in Canada.
“They get here and they will do another quarantine which provides us with the assurance that the students are perfectly safe to have in our schools. In fact, we’ve had no issues with our international students at this point with COVID-19,” said Morrell.
Trustee Linda Busuttil said she understands the importance of retaining international students in schools.
“This would be attracting new students to our board and the benefits that it gives to some of our smaller schools, and keeping them robust and teacher retention and so on,” she said.
Morrell said if the international students fail to follow UGDSB’s expectations, they will be sent back to their home country.
“We have sent students home before,” said Morrell.
Trustee Gail Campbell raised concerns about the program being premature because Ontario is one of the provinces not included in the list of provinces allowed to participate in the program.
“The province is only not included because not enough boards have submitted their attestation. It’s not because boards are saying no to this, all boards are saying yes,” said Morrell.
“The difficulty will be if we do not agree with the attestation, we’re going to have the possibility of losing our ISP.”
Morrell said some students have been removing their children from provinces that are not designated and trying to get them in ones that are.
“It is a competition, it is a business. And if we want to be competitive, we need to get into the game,” said Morrell.
He said if the borders had not been shut, the number of ISP students would be much higher.
“I know, I can tell you with high confidence, that I have people waiting to join us,” said Morrell, adding that there are currently 51 who have already submitted their letter in the hopes to join schools.
He said it's important that all school boards that wish to host international students in Ontario need to complete their attestation forms so the province can recognize that it is safe to welcome all international students.
“We’re not going to get an okay by the federal government if we don't provide a welcoming and safe opportunity for students,” said Morrell.
