Canada’s International Primary and Secondary Sectors Rebounding Well

Canada has had a strong recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic across all study levels. 2021 was a record-breaking year for international education in Canada, with increased K-12 enrolment driving rapid growth in several markets. With full year data for 2021, we’re taking a closer look at primary and secondary student permit data and how this affects the Canadian international education market.

Canadian school boards and private schools extend to both primary and secondary school systems. As a result, many of the factors that affect Canada’s primary sector also affect its secondary sector and vice versa. Like the post-secondary sector, these two sectors were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but are now diverging in interesting ways.

Let’s start by taking a look at the secondary sector.

International Secondary Students in Canada

Secondary students accounted for 64% of the primary and secondary market, with 8% of new Canadian study permits issued in 2021.¹ After three straight years of the secondary market share of all new Canadian study permits declining, 2021 was a year of strong growth.

The chart below shows the number of Canadian study permits issued to secondary students between 2016 and 2021:

In 2020, parents were hesitant to send their children abroad, choosing instead to keep them close to home. The number of new study permits issued to secondary students dropped by 83% in 2020. This was roughly in line with the decline across all study levels (81%).

With travel restrictions lifted in Canada, 2021 saw an increase from 5,949 new secondary study permits issued in 2020 as compared to 25,282 in 2021. This amounts to a 325% increase from 2020 to 2021.

Study Permits Issued by Source Country

Let’s take a look at how the numbers have shifted for Canada’s top source markets for secondary students over the last two years. The table below shows the top 10 source markets for 2020 and 2021 by new study permits issued and their totals.

China has historically been Canada’s largest supplier of secondary students, and remained so in 2021 with 3,941 study permits issued. Chinese secondary student inflows decreased by 56% from 2019, well behind the average decline of 4% and 12 percentage points lower than the overall Chinese market.

Among the top 10, China and Germany saw the largest increase in secondary student study permits issued. Italy had the largest percentage increase in secondary study permits, with 2.5 times more permits issued in 2021 compared to 2019, whereas the average for all study levels for Italian students increased by an average of 1.7 times their 2019 levels.

Italy has jumped up into our top 10 list for the first time in the past 5 years. Given their 88% drop in 2020, Italy bounced back with 30 times more secondary school permits in 2021.

It is worth noting that study permit numbers don’t capture complete numbers from short-term source regions like Latin America and Europe. International students from Latin America and Europe often stay a semester or less. Students who study for less than 6 months don’t require a study permit, and are not reflected in this data.

International Primary Students in Canada

Primary students accounted for 35% of the primary and secondary international student sector, with 4% of the new Canadian study permits issued in 2021. This is a three percentage point decrease from 2020, when primary students accounted for 7% of new Canadian study permits issued.

The chart below shows the number of Canadian study permits issued to primary students between 2016 and 2021.

14,065 new study permits were issued in 2021, an increase of 9,801 new study permits compared to 2020. This represented a 230% increase, close to the secondary sector increase (325%) and behind the increase in all study levels of 390%.

In 2021, study permit extensions decreased by 9%. This was below the trend we saw across all study levels, where extensions decreased by 28%. Over the past two years, we saw an increase of 15% in the number of study permit extensions issued to primary students.

Study Permits Issued by Source Country

Here, we’ll be taking a look at how the numbers changed for Canada’s top source markets for primary students. The table below shows the top 10 source markets for 2020 by new study permits issued and their totals compared to 2021.

These numbers largely reflect mature post-secondary students coming to Canada with young children. It’s no surprise, then, that India, easily the top source country for international post-secondary students, was also the top country for international primary students in 2020. It remained the number one source country with 2,238 study permits issued in 2021. 

The Philippines saw a spike of study permits issued and jumped one spot in the top 10. The Philippines had 5 times more study permits issued in 2021 compared to 2020, part of a larger surge in Filipino students coming to Canada last year.

Formerly in our top 10 list, South Africa saw a drop in study permits issued in 2021 with a growth of just 68%, compared to an average of 230% increase in the primary sector overall.

As a top source country in the primary sector, South Korea saw a drop of 50% in study permits issued between 2019 to 2021, breaking its streak in the top 3 countries in the past 5 years. In 2021, South Korea had a 75% increase in study permits issued for primary students, amounting to 747 study permits issued.

Summary

In 2020, both the primary and secondary sectors declined considerably. As we are moving away from pandemic restrictions, these numbers are showing a strong increase across study levels. This is in line with our post-secondary increases in numbers, showing a greater willingness among families of international students to move ahead with their plans to study in Canada. Study permit extensions also increased since 2019, showing an increased interest in students choosing to stay past primary and secondary ages.

China remains one of Canada’s top source countries for secondary students. We saw a change in source countries for primary students, with the Philippines jumping up in ranks ahead of China.

With parents feeling more confident about sending their children abroad in the aftermath of the pandemic, the Canadian international primary and secondary sectors are making a strong recovery. We’ll continue to monitor these trends throughout 2022.

About the ApplyInsights Team

FOOTNOTES:

1. All data courtesy of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).