Page 4 - ELG1601 Nov Issue 441

Page 4 ELlanguage news November 2016

Irish lead the rush Thais tie

to buy British EFL teaching

to tests

Melanie Butler examines why foreign buyers are A nEw series of English lan-

eager to acquire cash-strapped UK language chains guage tests for Thailand, based
on the cEFr, aims to estab-
lish English proficiency levels
needed for students and to ‘weed
ovErsEas BUyErs have sold to French investors, newly fixture Anglo-Continental or out backpackers’ from its pool
been rushing into the market to opened newlands College has Anglocontinental, whose trading of foreign English teachers,
snap up medium-sized language gone to a British educational name was brought by Cavendish according to the Bangkok Post.
school chains in the uK, where group and the property of Alex- school following the closure The test, designed by the
the results of two years of bad anders College, the flagship of the year-round operation in Thailand Professional Qualifica-
trading and the immediate con- boarding school on the East 2015. westbourne school of tions institute for the Ministry
sequences of Brexit have left Anglian coast, is up for sale. English has been sold to Tower Courtesy The Victoria Company of Education, is based on the
many schools in financial dif- nils Toettcher and his wife Hamlets Further Education Col- Council of Europe’s Common
ficulty. Peter Dewhirst of ELT Anne Alexander have retired, lege, a state-sector operator, European Framework of refer-
Acquisitions told the Gazette leaving their son Ben in charge which intends to open a lan- ence (cEFr) for adult learners
that buyer interest is at an all- of the two skola language guage centre in london. studying another European lan-
time high, a view confirmed by schools in london and Exeter, A bad year of summer trading guage. cEFr-T, as it is known,
other ElT mergers and acquisi- and skola English study Tours. in 2015 coupled with rocketing Going ‘Globish’? will be adapted to Thai circum-
tions specialists. other chains affected include agents’ commissions – demands stances and have a 1 to 10 scale.
The irish have led the charge. lTC, which was rescued by for up to 45 per cent have been In the city of Ancona, Italy shop owners, sales The test designers were as of
Dublin-based investors real its management after previ- reported – left much of uK ElT assistants and waiting staff in the local shops have late september awaiting confir-
Experience limited have ous owners Japanese giant vulnerable, and the collapse recently gone through an unusual English mation of the required attainment
snapped up British study Cen- geos collapsed. lTC london of the pound following Brexit language test. In a bid to discover whether the city levels. Provisionally, students
tres, adding the premium group has closed, while the Brighton came too late to affect the peak is ready to welcome and help foreign tourists, starting English in the final years
to its recently acquired budget school has been merged with July market, though numbers are teachers at language school International House of primary school were expected
outfit, the English studio. steve family-owned stalwart lan- believed to have risen towards TVC, also known as the Victoria Company, went to reach levels 3 and 4 ‘within five
Phillips, chair of English uK, guage studies international, the end of the summer season. around the city pretending to be tourists and years’, with university entrants
has been put in charge of the leaving only lTC Eastbourne with the us dollar high for the asking for directions and advice in English. The needing a 6. Foreign Teflers who
British study Centres opera- remaining. language in lon- last two years, the irish have mystery testers (above) awarded a certificate to don’t have a teaching degree
tion, which consolidates the don closed suddenly in october been the main beneficiaries, and those respondents that were able to understand would need a 7 to apply for a
four year-round Experience without the knowledge of its buying into the uK market is their questions and help them. The certificate did two-year waiver, after which they
English schools and the group’s partner schools in Totnes, one way of balancing the cur- not mention English, but ‘Globish’, a variety of would – eventually – have to take
summer operation, acquired Devon, and Ireland – both of rency risk between sterling and English born out of ‘diversity, cultural background a teaching diploma and obtain a
from travel giant Tui, with the which continue to trade, though the euro. and the evolution of the language itself’. licence to teach in Thailand. n
three BsC year-round schools, the irish school has changed its language travel and inter-
in addition to its summer school name to sandy Cove. Colches- national education are unusual
operations. oscars international ter international study Centre, among international operators
summer schools have also gone which was put into liquidation for not hedging currency in Turkish unis back at work
to an irish operation, Malvern this summer with junior courses advance to protect against fluc-
college Dublin, itself recently still running, has been brought tuation, leaving it to the agents
been bought out by manage- from the liquidators by a Turk- to take the risk. However, most
ment from its uK-based mother ish group. agencies are too small to do Following July’s gov- medium courses are now off the public-sector institution Dokuz
company. Among others to change so and many have been on the ernment purge of Turkey’s curriculum. Eylül university. one said that
irish investors have not ben- hands are Bournemouth-based wrong end of the high dollar education sector (see August According to the Turkiye Gaze- while at gediz, ‘30 per cent of
efited from the break-up of summer school operator inter- and sterling in recent years, 2016 Gazette), many of the fif- tesi newspaper, the government education was in English’, their
the skola group, however, national Quest, now called pushing them to raise commis- teen universities closed by the has created three new universities classes are now ‘100 per cent in
which has lost all three of Anglo and in a new company sions to cover the risk. record government’s Higher Education – Beykoz university in istanbul, Turkish’.
its independent schools. The with a different management lost rates for sterling, how- Council have reopened under İzmir Bakırçay University and According to a Gazette source
london-based international structure. The group has noth- ever, should help both the uK new names, but some students İzmir Democracy University – in the mostly ethnic Kurdish
Community school has been ing to do with Bournemouth schools and their agents. n are discovering that English- and changed the names of five city of Diyarbakir (south-east-
reopened universities. ern Turkey), september’s new
Newsweek reported in sep- school year started late as so
tember that students of the many primary school teachers
closed private-sector gediz had been purged. Many Turk-
university, at Cesme near ish academics elsewhere in the
izmir, were homeless, unable to country are still out of work
retrieve belongings from their and are owed a lot of back pay,
sealed-off halls of residence. according to another Gazette
The Bianet website in october source. The British Council
interviewed gediz students who Turkey’s ielts tests went ahead
had been transferred to local as planned. n

Ecuador ‘ now needs

2,800 EFL teachers’

EcUaDor nEEDs 2,800 The Andean nation of Ecua-
English language teachers to dor currently has 8,400 EFl
accomplish the goals of its new teachers, but it needs more
English language learning pol- before the new stage of its Eng-
icy, El País newspaper reports. lish language policy begins in
The ministry of education has May 2017. Minister of education
launched a new school curricu- Augusto Espinosa stated that
lum in which English language the government sees providing
is a mandatory subject in all state equal opportunities in education
schools. Beginning in the current as the best way to combat pov-
(2016–17) school year, primary- erty. The country seeks to extend
school children, who started on access to education at all levels,
5 september, have three hours El País reported.
of English a week. The move to According to the British
more primary-school English Council, the ‘greatest barriers
was approved in 2014, while the to English language learning are
policy aims to see all students a lack of access to government-
attaining cEFr a1-level profi- funded programmes and the high
ciency in English language by cost of study’. The minister said
the time they are aged eleven. that the government will hire
The plan also includes teach- foreign ElT teachers and the
ers reaching B2 in English, with country will see the first results
students attaining B1 by the time of the new school curriculum by
they leave high school. 2020. n

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