Eucon insists more foreign students will help economy

The Eucon International School has maintained stance to support a legislative initiative that would promote the influx of foreign students into CNMI’s educational system, convinced of the move’s potential to uplift the local economy.

Eucon president Dr. Christian Wei said that while some members of the Coalition of Private schools have voiced concerns against the initiative, other members of the group have pledged full support for the bill’s promising possibilities.

“We feel this is a good bill especially in our situation where we have investors coming in…we need to provide a good educational environment to attract investors,” said Dr. Wei.

Reacting to earlier reports that offering more foreign students open access to CNMI institutions will impact the local economy in a minimal scale, Dr. Wei has stated the contrary.

“When foreign students come in, they will have to pay school fees and rent. Nowadays, we have a lot of vacant apartments and they need a lot of people to come and rent their apartments. So once that happens, it will help the economy boom. We feel that the argument made earlier is not really valid,” he said.

Dr. Wei commended officials of the Northern Marianas College for recognizing the initiative’s merits. NMC earlier expressed hopes the move could widen the Northern Marianas’ economic base.

Eucon also dismissed opinions that the arrival of more foreign students on island would compromise the Department of Labor and Immigration’s already gargantuan duties.

“I feel sad that people would have this view point because this means they’re underestimating the ability of DOLI. This reaction is undermining the efforts they have done for so many years. Should this bill become a reality Eucon, for one, would support DOLI. They have been doing a good job,” Dr. Wei said.

Concerns have been raised about the Commonwealth’s health and safety should lawmakers grant foreign students access to enter schools here.

“We only have problems controlling aliens to the CNMI when citizens or individuals do not report those who are illegally here. And these problems will continue to exist if we don’t help the immigration office,” he said.

Coalition president Scott Norman earlier argued luring a huge group of foreign students to pursue their studies in the Commonwealth will add burden to the duties of DOLI and would put the community’s safety at a risk.

“It could be a very dangerous thing. When we bring foreign students as non-immigrants, there has to be a way to monitor them. They come here strictly for education purposes but how do we control it?,” Mr. Norman said in an earlier interview.

He added that the CNMI is not yet ready to take on the challenge of hosting more foreign students than it can handle, noting the islands’ lack of sufficient facilities and infrastructure.

He, however, said the coalition is not closing its doors on the legislation, citing that with some rewording or amendments, it could serve the best interest of the whole CNMI.