$1,800 earning, $1,550 rent! Ordeal of Canadian students

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, September 26

A majority of the families that have sent their wards to Canada on student visa concur with Canadian businessman Sukhi Bath’s opinion that parents must set aside an additional Rs 50 lakh as expenses for initial five years even after paying the first year college fee and the GIC (guaranteed investment certificate) amount.

No Greener Pastures

Annual college fee Rs 20 lakh

Average annual salary in first five years Rs 20 lakh

Rent per annum Rs 12 lakh

A few locals whose children are in Toronto and Brampton said the job scenario in the two cities was dismal and a fresher was earning a meagre 12-15 dollars per hour. “A financial backup is a must. At least half of the annual college fee, rentals and other expenses have to be borne by parents to ensure their child studies well and gets a good job upon the completion of the course,” says Palak Sharma, whose son is studying business management in Brampton.

Palak says securing a job remained an uphill task for her son in his first year. “He did menial tasks and was hardly paid. On a student visa, he could work only 20 hours a week and earned about 1,800 dollars a month. Of this, 1,550 dollars went as rent alone…. We paid his entire Rs 20 lakh second year fee, in addition to other expenses. It’s no different in the third year,” she says.

Sukhi Bath, who lives in Surrey and runs an NGO, ‘Punjab Bhawan’, for the welfare of students had here yesterday suggested keeping an additional backup of Rs 50 lakh for the first five years.