Raid spells end for illegal English school

By RENEE KIRIONA

The Immigration Service and police have raided an English language school for foreign students that has been operating illegally.

The New Oriental School in Queen St, Auckland, was closed because it was not registered with the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.

The raid follows last month's call for an urgent inquiry into the country's billion-dollar foreign education industry after reports that six registered English language schools had folded because of dwindling foreign student numbers.

The Immigration Service refused to comment on the raid, which took place late last month.

"All I can say is that there's an investigation into a particular case and action may be taken in court," the service's Brett Solvander said yesterday.

It is believed most of the school's students were Chinese but the size of the roll is not known.

NZQA spokesperson Bill Lennox said all state and private tertiary providers, including those running courses for foreign students, were required to register with the authority.

"This is a really rare case. I've never anything like it before," Mr Lennox said. "People who run these schools have to understand that the export education industry is big business and others will not hesitate to tell on them if they are operating illegally."

Tom Newnham, an agent for Dominion English School and Western Springs College, said some owners of "dodgy English language schools" in Auckland simply wanted to make a profit.

Mr Newnham said Asian students paid up to $12,000 a year in tuition fees to study at an NZQA registered school.

National list MP Pansy Wong said she was shocked to hear the school was not registered. She had been invited to its graduation ceremony last year but ended up not going.