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During the last few months, an investigation has been held in Irish English Language Schools.
Ireland is one of the top destinations for ELT (English Language Teaching) and every year, many students from all over the world visit the Emerald Island to improve their English.
All non-EEA (European Economic Area) students need a study visa in order to attend long term courses in Ireland.
The investigation brought showed that many schools falsified registers, adding presence hours to international student, so that they could reach all the hours they needed for their Student Visa to be valid; at the same time, not being forced to attend classes, they could work part-time.
It all started thanks to a report in a British school made by BBC.
The investigations lead to close 5 schools, so far.
Closing these 5 schools, more than 400 regular English students were left without a place to study. Moreover, their visas could have been revoked.
For these students, coming in Ireland to learn English represented a massive expense of money and time, since the come from outside Europe.
Irish Government decided to grant them a sort of limbo: until September they have time to decide if enrol with another school or come back home. In the meanwhile, their visa is not valid, but they can stay on Irish land.
The Irish Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn announced that the Ministry is working on a new body of control for ELT schools. From January 2015 schools are going to need an Irish International Education Mark (IEM), an accreditation scheme renewable on annual basis that is going to substitute ACELS, the previous certificate that ended up to be not very efficient.
None of our EazyCity partners have been involved in this investigation.
We hope the Irish Government can work to guarantee the best ELT service to the many students that every year trust Irish schools for their education.
