Upper Canada Leger Centre signs partnership with Chinese school

Officials from Zhengzhou No. 9 High School in China recently signed a partnership agreement with the Upper Canada Leger Center for Education and Training.

PHOTO CREDIT - UCDSB

Cornwall - Mar. 22, 2011 - The Cornwall-based Upper Canada Leger Centre for Education and Training has signed a partnership agreement with a high school in Zhengzhou, China that will see students from that school arriving in Canada to further their education.

The five-year agreement will put a Canadian teacher in Zhengzhou No. 9 High School to teach English skills to Grade 10 students for one year, said Carmen Cousineau, executive director of the Upper Canada Leger Centre (UCLC). The Chinese students will then come to Canada to take Grades 11 and 12 at high schools in the Upper Canada District School Board. Students study the Ontario curriculum, and are offered English as a Second Language (ESL) credit courses each semester, as well as after-school ESL support twice weekly while here.

Chinese students are interested in studying with the Upper Canada District School Board because of the many opportunities a Canadian education affords, said Cousineau.

"It's mostly because of competition for spaces in China," said Cousineau. "Annually there are significantly more students graduating from Chinese high schools than there are university seats available. If they graduate in the Upper Canada District School Board, there is a much greater chance of these kids being able to get into a Canadian university."

Students will study in six different schools in the UCDSB â€" CCVS, St. Lawrence Intermediate School, Brockville Collegiate Institute, Thousand Islands Secondary School, Smiths Falls District Collegiate Institute and Carleton Place High School.

Partnership agreements have also been signed with schools in Suzhou, China and Qingdao, China.

The Upper Canada Leger Centre for Education and Training is an arms-length non-profit organization. One of its tasks is to attract foreign students to Canada, who study at schools in the Upper Canada District School Board.