SECONDARY schools are feeling ripped off by the education ministry.
They claim the ministry has been collecting from international students but not returning appropriate funding back into schools.
East Manukau’s largest secondary, Macleans College, claims it injected more than $7.5 million into the local economy last year through its international student programme, but lost more than $180,000 to the ministry.
Principal Byron Bentley says the ministry’s $900 levy per student is “unnecessary and unfair”, when it’s the school that does all the work attracting international pupils.
He says Macleans has worked hard over the past eight years to build its international roll up to 225 fulltime students, while the ministry isn’t providing “bang for his buck”.
Sparked by the disapproval of many principals around the country, the ministry has approved a review of the International Student Levy (ISL) which it has charged schools since 1992.
The ministry administers two levies that cover providers enrolling international students. The ISL applies to state integrated schools and means the ministry deducts $900 from school operational grants.
The ministry told the Times the income received by the ministry from schools with international students was $6.698m, for the financial year to June last year.
Mr Bentley says what’s paid out to the ministry provides little or no benefit to his school.
“It’s totally unnecessary and not right. It’s a good way they could be giving back to the school to top up a very tight and under-funded operations grant,” says Mr Bentley.
Pakuranga College principal Heather McRae agrees.
“We have 80 international students. In the end it is the schools that set up the business and the ministry decided they wanted a piece of the action,” says Mrs McRae.
She says the $900 per student is lost from schools revenue and they never get it back.
“Sucking the money off schools into a central agency doesn’t make any sense. Whatever way you look at it, we’re the ones that lose,” says Mrs McRae.
The ministry claims the money is reinvested into schools through the funding of ERO reports, building maintenance and service and operational support of international students.
Schools say they want to be able to delegate their own money. The levy review is underway, conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers. It’s expected to be completed by mid July.
“We don’t want to be levied $900, when we’re already strapped enough,” says Mr Bentley.
