English language schools in Ireland are bracing themselves for uncertainty as the sector struggles against the credit crunch, competition with a weak pound and fears over the swine flu pandemic.
Already this summer one school has been forced to shut down due to a fall in student numbers, and while other schools are confident of remaining open, they are less certain about business after the summer boom.
David O’Grady of MEI Relsa, an association representing 68 language schools in Ireland, told Metro Éireann: “There’s a lot of caution and nervousness in the sector at the moment, particularly looking to the autumn and winter months, with summer income being used to pay off debts accrued during the lean periods, just like any other business at the moment.”
Surveys have been sent out to schools throughout the country to gauge the level of business, but it will be some time before these numbers can be collated.
'‘Roughly 200,000 language students come to Ireland every year, but this year we would be very happy if we got 160,000,” said O’Grady.
Up until last year the language teaching sector was thriving and achieving eight per cent growth annually, a large proportion of this due to non-EU citizens who could study for 15 hours a week and work 20 hours under the terms of their permits.
The stream of migrant workers also encouraged ‘cowboy’ schools which offered the means to get a work visa but provided notoriously poor quality courses.
But now with record unemployment, there is less interest from these migrant students as it is harder to find the part-time jobs necessary to survive.
Recently, Fine Gael spokesperson on immigration Denis Naughten even claimed that some language schools were “breeding grounds for prostitution” and were fronts for organised crime gangs.
But O’Grady dismissed this. “There’s absolutely nothing to these rumours at all, they are just silly. And while they won’t affect business whatsoever, they can only serve to annoy members who already have problems making ends meet.”
Yet despite the pessimism, there is some hope that the sector will ride out the recession. With jobs more scarce, foreign workers are realising that speaking English in the business world is no longer a choice but a necessity to compete.
Stephen Porter, academic director of studies at U-Learn Language School, says that his school is not as dependent on migrant workers as others, and is seeing a large number of students coming from Europe.
He feels that schools dependent on migrant workers will suffer as '‘countries less economically developed were hit badly, and as a result [the people] don’t have money to spend.”
Porter believes that it is time to '‘sell the country again rather than the economy… the sector will recover slowly but surely as people will always need to learn English.”
Una MacManus, who has been an English language teacher for many years, echoes Porter’s view. While there are fewer jobs for English language teachers, “there is a gradual rise in numbers who are coming here specifically to learn”.
She believes that it’s time to re-market Ireland’s image abroad based on the ‘craic agus ceol’ philosophy and less on the Celtic Tiger economy.
“Students from developing economies will always prefer Ireland as it has a convivial, family orientated country with similar attitudes,” she adds.
