By Dale Bass
Kamloops This Week
When the Kamloops-Thompson school board introduced an international student program in 1998, 20 full-time equivalent young people came to Kamloops to study.
Since then, the program has grown with 150 students from 18 countries taking part last school year.
It’s a total that’s not quite at the original target of 300 students but, trustees were told at this week’s meeting, growth has been steady — and the need for homestay volunteers has also increased.
The infrastructure available to provide the education program, trustees were told in a report from assistant superintendent Rob Schoen, due to board policy restricting the number of international students who can be enrolled at a school to 10 per cent of the student body.
Schoen’s report estimated the maximum number that could be accepted due to those limitations at 200 students.
As for where the students last year came from, most were from China, Japan and Germany, with others from Brazil, Hong Kong, Mexico, Taiwan, Spain, Korea, India, Colombia, Vietnam, Rwanda, United Kingdom, South Africa, Netherlands, Kazakhstan and Burundi.
Anyone interested in assisting with home stays can call the board at 250-374-0679.