Educators to sell city at fair

Hyun Taek Yang from Tauranga Korean Times, Graeme Lind of Education Tauranga, Olive Lee from Tauranga Korean Times, Matt Simeon from Pillans Point School, Anne Young of Education Tauranga and Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby talked about the value Korean students bring to Tauranga. Photo / George Novak

Tauranga is home to about 250 fee-paying Korean students and this is expected to increase by 100 next year.

To help sell Tauranga to Korean parents, a group of representatives of Education Tauranga from 19 local schools and institutions will be heading to Korea in October, visiting an education fair in Seoul and Busan.

The Tauranga Korean Times, an agent for Education Tauranga,has been a huge part of the effort to recruit more Korean students to Tauranga by promoting the city to Korean parents as the best place to live, play and study.

Director Hyun Taek Yang said there were more than 150 Korean families in Tauranga with 250 fee-paying children studying at local schools.

He expected this would rise to 200 families, with 350 students next year.

"The numbers are consistently increasing. We are putting a lot of time and effort into our website so parents can find out about our city and schools throughout the year.

"That kind of advertisement will help them find out the city is the best place for their children's education.

"Our Korean families are very happy with the schools and are very satisfied with what we are doing for their children."

Mr Yang said most Korean families stayed in the country two to three years but many wanted to stay longer. Fathers usually lived in Korea to earn money while the rest of the family lived in Tauranga.

Pillans Point School principal Matt Simeon said international students were an important part of local schools from both a cultural perspective and also the financial impact on a school.

His school has 14 Korean students and one from Germany. Mr Simeon said the international students had a big impact on local children and together helped build a classroom culture of understanding and diversity.

"They understand the world is bigger than just our school and our city."

Mayor Stuart Crosby said international education was important for the city.

"It does assist in our economy. It has a gross value of over $30 million a year. That often goes back into education.

"From my perspective, it's not about that as such.

"It's about the opportunity for international students to come to our city, experience our city, enjoy our city and get to know our people.

"There's also the other side for our students to have more engagement with students from overseas," he said.