Editorial: Good name as educators in jeopardy

Few trade missions of recent times have been more important than the one that Education Minister Trevor Mallard has just made to China. It was a mission of urgent repair for this country's reputation as a reliable, safe and welcoming place for young Chinese to come to study the English language. It is worrying that such repairs are necessary. The mission follows the collapse of the country's largest private provider of "export education", the Modern Age Institute of Learning, which left students, teachers and homestay hosts to wonder where their money has gone. That is evidence of a need to regulate and monitor more carefully an industry in which one bad apple can undermine the business of all.

But judicious oversight of schools is a relatively easy task compared with solving the other problem Mr Mallard faced in China - the damage we are doing to ourselves by small-minded resentment of the numbers of Asian students in our midst. The damage can be read on websites where these students exchange intelligence about host countries and probably vent their own resentments of racism they meet. Postings that label us "the most racist nation in the South Pacific" and other such invective cannot be ignored.

From the students' point of view it could well be true. It is probably a function of the population's size and diversity. The number of Asian students is more noticeable here than it is in the larger cities of the United States, Canada and Australia which compete with us in the Asian market for education in the English language. The consequences cut both ways: the students feel more conspicuous and the host population is more fearful of them.

New Zealanders need to remember that adverse attitudes here can do much more damage than they would do in more cosmopolitan communities. If ordinary human decency is not reason enough for some people to change their attitudes, they might consider their own economic welfare. China provided the majority of the 80,000 international students who came here last year for secondary or tertiary education. They are the lifeblood of an industry that has become one of the top-five contributors to our national wellbeing.

In fact, since the fall-off in farm commodity prices a few years ago it has been largely the increasing numbers of foreign students that has kept the economy growing strongly. Year by year the inflow of students has increased by 30 per cent or more as schools and tertiary institutions actively market themselves in China and elsewhere. The prosperity they have generated, particularly in Auckland, should not be underestimated.

In March the Auckland Chamber of Commerce estimated that English language schools had probably contributed more even than the America's Cup to the region's economy. At that time, the chamber's chief executive wrote: "If through mismanagement and insular attitudes we send the wrong signals back to the students' home countries, we could break the golden egg ... " For a number of reasons, the Sars outbreak among them, the egg seems to be at risk. This year language schools are reporting a drop in demand of as much as 50 per cent and many are struggling.

Yet less than a year ago Winston Peters was complaining at the industry's growth and even the Prime Minister was suggesting a limit be placed on the number of Chinese students in out tertiary institutions. Now her education minister has to do all he can to allay the impression that Chinese are less than welcome here. It is a salutary example of how easily a sensitive service industry can be undermined, and how hard the country will have to work to restore a good name.