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The problem of “degree purchasing” might be the worst at the K-to-12 schools that B.C. helps operate in other nations, Kuehn said. B.C. school districts now sponsor 44 schools in other countries, 37 of which are in China. They offer a B.C. high-school graduation certificate, which provides easier access to Canadian universities. One entrepreneur, Sherman Jen, operates 12 schools in China.

The emphasis of B.C. public schools on serving more international students could be contributing to changes in core curricula, which once emphasized Canadian subjects, Kuehn added.

Educators used to believe every student graduating from a B.C. high school should have a substantial course on Canada in the last two years. But, as Kuehn says, Indian, Chinese or Egyptian students working for a B.C. graduation certificate understandably have less interest in Canadian history.

It is causing educational tension. And Kuehn is concerned B.C.’s new high school curriculum, which came into effect in 2018, “removes the requirement for a Canadian history and geography social studies course.”

Public education is about more than satisfying individual “customers,” Kuehn says. It should promote civic responsibilities and participation in a democratic society. “Relying on the wealthy classes from other countries to subsidize Canadian public education,” he said, is having unexpected outcomes.

“International education is contributing to the formation of a transnational elite that has more in common with each other than with most of the people in their own countries or even communities,” Kuehn writes.

He borrows the characterization by David Goodhart that populations are dividing into “people who see the world from Anywhere and the people who see it from Somewhere.” The international student phenomenon, Kuehn says, is contributing to a transnational elite class.

“Corporatization is helping to turn international education into little more than a private consumable commodity and, ultimately, an agent of global inequality.”

dtodd@postmedia.com