Page 6 - ELG1805 May Issue 457

NEWS . NEWS

Boost to ‘GHOST’ AMERICAN SCHOOL DROP IN EU

ENGLISH
Irish pay and SPARKS VIETNAM UPROAR LEARNERS

By Irena Barker
conditions fight By Melanie Butler Accreditation Council, providing from’ the GWIS website. The number of potential English
which
from
was
A ‘ghost’ American school – with
banned
learners in Europe is predicated to
The Gazette was unable to
no students, no school buildings accreditation services in the State find any accreditation for GWIS’ drop by nearly 9 per cent between
and no accreditation – has of Florida in 2012 after it failed to second campus in the town of 2015 and 2025, a new report
By Melanie Butler access the country’s insolvency caused an uproar among bilingual monitor schools. Ontario, California. suggests. The British Council-
Talks between Ireland’s minister fund. LanLearn closed its doors international schools in Vietnam. Gazette investigations found a The address listed for the Florida commissioned study The Future
of employment and union in March, leaving 150 students on George Washington certificate dated 2011 from the campus also does not contain a Demand for English in Europe: 2025
representatives of teachers caught the streets and its teaching staff International School, whose Florida Department of Education school, as a Vietnamese client and Beyond says there will be a fall
in the fallout from a recent owed up to £3,000 each in unpaid website gwisedu.com boasts it has stating that GWIS was recognised discovered when he visited. in the total number of potential
language school failure mark a salary. campuses in Florida and California, as a private school. In his video of the visit, available learners of 15.3 million over the
breakthrough for a campaign to The school, most of whose had formed partnerships with a However, Florida does not on YouTube, he discovers that the seven countries studied.
improve terms and conditions in students come from Brazil, ran number of private bilingual schools accredit or inspect any private school’s only presence is a private This, it says, is largely due
the Irish EFL sector. into trouble after losing its right to in the East Asian country to schools and simply lists them as mailbox in a branch of the mailing to ‘demographic changes’ and
The Unite union has also given enrol non-EU nationals. provide curriculum, materials and active. company Mail & More. improvements in school-level
a cautious welcome to Regina The students enrolled in the teachers. In 2017 the bureau responsible At the time of going to press English education.
Doherty’s decision to introduce a school were covered by learner But a Vietnamese school owner for advertising standards requested GWIS was still advertising for However, European demand
law banning zero-hour contracts, protection insurance and have now contracts. The association of forced to go downmarket and sell told the BBC he had visited the that statements suggesting the teachers to go to Vietnam. for top-up and ‘refresher’ English
a major plank of the EFL teachers’ all been offered places at another Irish accredited schools, MEI, has on price, forcing down teachers’ address of the California school school was approved by Florida’s Nobody from GWIS replied courses is set to rise. The research
campaign. language school, according to the written to its members reminding hourly rates – even in some only to find it was a conference Department of Education be when the Gazette contacted them also finds that English will
Unite organiser Roy Hassey Irish Council for International them that under Irish law it is accredited schools. venue. The Gazette found that ‘substantiated, altered or removed by email about the story. ‘continue to be the dominant
told the Gazette that the Irish Students. almost impossible for teachers According to Unite’s Roy most of the gwisedu.com photos language in Europe and remain the
government has agreed to work The Irish branch of British- working at schools to qualify for Hassey, the plan to outlaw zero- of its so-called California campus preferred second language for most
with Unite to make LanLearn, based Unite has been championing freelance status. hour contracts will be beneficial, can also be seen on a website Europeans in 2025’.
a Limerick school which closed the rights of Ireland’s EFL teaching David O’Grady, chief executive ‘but only if the legislation is advertising a conference venue for The ‘mature market’ is likely
down in March, involuntarily staff for some time. Demands of the association, has also told the policed.’ hire. to grow, the report adds, with
insolvent. This would allow some have included the end to ‘bogus’ Gazette he welcomes the ban on He added: ‘Plenty of English Vietnam’s Ministry of Education students expecting a ‘personalised’
ten teachers from the school to self-employment and zero-hours zero-hours contracts. language schools … have flagrantly and Training has now instructed and ‘flexible’ product, using a
Much of the problem lies in the ignored previous employment schools in nine provinces to combination of new technology and
growth of unaccredited schools in legislation so there is nothing to withdraw from their co-operation face-to-face learning.
a market that has seen substantial suggest they won’t ignore this agreements with GWIS. The report stresses that online
growth in the last four years. legislation unless Unite and our Early in April, rumours on social- and other digital forms of learning
The situation has been members force them not to.’ media networks suggested that the will grow but adds there is ‘no
exacerbated by the government The new law will also oblige US side of the operation did not evidence’ that by 2025 there would
closure of the Acels accreditation an employer to supply a written exist. Press stories also questioned be ‘the large-scale substitution
scheme and its failure to introduce contract within five days of starting the validity of US accreditation of face-to-face teaching with
the alternative Irish Quality Mark work and make employers provide documents that GWIS had Screenshot of the artificially intelligent bots.’
scheme, first mooted in 2004. contracts where the specified presented to Vietnamese officials. George Washington The report looked at France,
The campaign in Ireland Unable to become accredited, hours accurately reflect the hours The BBC Vietnamese Service International School Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal,
continues many new schools have been an employee is actually working. reported that these documents website Romania and Spain. (For analysis
came from the Florida Regional page 22 and 23).
newsinbrief EF COMES FIRST FOR WOMEN IN GENDER PAY STUDY

A NEW WAVE OF THE UK-BASED GLASGOW UNIVERSITY TURKEY HAS SEEN A MEXICAN SCHOOL By Melanie Butler The median average pay, the the national average of 8.9 per building workshops to empower
FILIPINO PUBLISHER HAS BEEN VOTED 40 PER CENT GROWTH INSTITUTO MODERNO EF is the best employer for women midpoint of earning for each sex, cent. Apart from EF, however, the women to shape successful careers.’
English teachers are to Jolly Learning has signed best in the UK for the in the number of English AMERICANO among the five language school reveals at what point in their career median bonus pay of all the chains More analysis on page 12 and 13.
be allowed to a ten-year licensing deal experience it offers its medium international has been named as the chains that submitted figures on women begin to make less progress was higher for men.
work in China, with China’s biggest international students. schools since 2013, winner of the British their gender pay gap to the UK than men. Women in one company received
according to news foreign language It received the Whatuni market analysts ISC English Olympics 2018, government. From our analysis of the results an average bonus worth half that
agency Xinhua. publisher. Foreign Student Choice Award Research have reported. The Pie News reports.
A new agreement with Language Teaching & for the Best International From just 84 in The UK-based Oxford The Swedish-owned educational of all the chains (see page 12), the paid to men.
China would allow Research Press will have Experience, voted for by 2013, the number of International Education giant had a median hourly pay gap four EFL chains generally did well A spokesperson for EF said,
2,000 teachers to start exclusive rights to publish current students at UK English-language K–12 Group established the of 4 per cent in favour of women. in terms of median hourly pay. ‘Women make up over 65 per cent
this year, and would be the Jolly Phonics range in universities. international schools in British English Olympics Twice as many women as men Two pay women slightly more, of our staff and more than half of our
valid for at least two Chinese for the Chinese Aberystwyth University Turkey has increased to ten years ago. Students received bonuses, which were on one reports a zero pay gap and only senior leadership team worldwide.
years. market, The Bookseller in Wales came second 118 this year, with a total from bilingual schools average 33 per cent higher than the one reported an hourly gender pay ‘EF strives to be an employer that
Teachers will earn reports. in the international of 69,600 students and all over the world men’s. gap in favour of men higher than attracts women and uses career-
around $1,300 a month Under the deal, Jolly category, with 8,200 full-time compete in a series of
under the deal with Learning will visit China Northumbria third. teaching staff. The challenges that test their
the Philippines, where twice a year to help Loughborough won the market is worth $622 English language, critical
English is the main schools use their phonics overall University of the million in tuition fee thinking and public
medium of instruction. method. Year award. income. speaking skills.

6 May 2018 editorial@elgazette.com 7