“English language schools should suspend the recruitment of international students until 2021, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has recommended. In a three-page letter sent to language school representative groups as part of talks regarding the sector’s reopening, the Department said it would welcome ‘a voluntary moratorium’ which would put a stop to the enrolling of new international students to English language schools in Ireland …” (more)
[Jessica Doyle, Irish Times, 28 August]
Amazed that the paper of record would publish such an unbalanced piece. Strange that the writer was unable to find a single school owner to speak to, and yet has detailed quotes from Unite representatives. Makes you wonder, no? Perhaps there’s an agenda involved.
Education seem to have swallowed the Unite line whole, in spite of the fact that there is no meaningful evidence to support it.
The fact is that the Dept of Education have not regulated the sector properly since ACELS was shown to have no legal basis over five years ago. Blaming the sector for the failings of the civil servants is ridiculous.
Language schools had 30 mins notice of closure due to covid, and had to implement online classes in a very short space of time. Most did their best — under financial pressure — to maintain good standards,
How does the Dept of Ed itself do on implementing standards? The IEM was first proposed in 2011 –yes, almost 10 years ago — and is still not implemented. . And the Dept in charge of implementing it is the Dept of Education. ACELS, the regulatory body, cannot regulate for the past five years due to a court finding, so there’s no regulation.
They have some neck blaming the schools for a lack of standards when their maladministration is causing the problem.