Plucka, did you witness the accident firsthand or is that heresay? Despite what I am about to write, I find that scarily excessive.
I fly with the same group of students (albeit at a different school) and must admit that I do find lack of situational awareness to be a distinct problem.
Having spent many years overseas myself I can fully sympathise with the language barrier issue, but it seems to be more than just that. Sometimes I wonder what is required to get through to these students. They seem to be good at parroting what is shown to them but unable to do anything remotely different unless prompted or having been shown exactly the same beforehand. The number of times I have had to intervene to prevent an aircraft from driving off the side of a runway due to torque effect is unbelievable.
They are not unintelligent fellows, but it is quite clear that traditional kiwi (western?) teaching methods just do not work as well as they need to most of the time.
Perhaps a lot of instructors give up due to the language barrier... correct their mistakes for them, without trying to teach them, and leave it there??
The only time I have experienced anything at all similar is when teaching a celebrity who had been clearly wrapped in cotton wool throughout their previous flying with a fan/instructor....
An a side note, a LOT of flying is being done by international students now, and it wouldnt surprise me if close to half of the flight training going on in NZ is such. So, it is not really fair to be making any bold statements about their safety until at least half of the training incidents/accidents in NZ are directly contributable to international students.
The above has absolutely no relation to the Bay of Plenty accident.
RIP