Page 48 - StudyTravel Magazine November/December 2021 Issue

mAltA Key poINts

mArKet ANAlysIs 9

schools participated in our survey
English language schools in Malta had their
summer season disrupted by sudden government 7,911
rule changes in July although schools report
that business is slowly starting to recover, total number of students at
as Bethan Norris finds out. these schools in 2020

lAnguAge
52,213
total number of estimated
student weeks at these
schools in 2020

14%
alta’s summer season got off have fewer students in classes due to
to a positive start this year, social distancing restrictions.” of these students were studying
Mbefore language schools were At Sprachcaff e www.sprachcaff e. online
stopped in their tracks by an overnight com too, Clara Ros says that business
announcement by the government is steady. “Fortunately, we have many
that they would have to close their students who come back year after
doors due to rising numbers of year and visit our school in Malta. In
Covid-19 cases in the country. the summer, we had a high demand Caroline
Karl Sammut from Gateway School for face-to-face courses. Due to Tissot, from
of English www.english-malta. the imposed regulations, we had to FELTOM, talks to
com says, “Most of our students change all classes to online. Obviously, us...
are long-term students that had students prefer to attend face-to-
arrived in the beginning of summer face classes but they continue to fi ll “Malta’s infection rate is still
before the government introduced our school.” relatively low and as a result
the travel restrictions on the 14th Daniela Montoya Mota from may be deemed as one of the
July – all travellers to Malta had to inlingua School of Languages www. safest destinations to travel to.
be fully vaccinated from then on – inlinguamalta.com says that their The measures [introduced by the
when schools were ordered to close. student numbers are back up to government earlier this year]
Most of the long-term students are expected levels. She adds that fi nding have restricted the number of ELT
Japanese, Latin Americans, namely solutions to problems has been a students who may travel to Malta.
Colombians, Argentines etc, who took constant part of their job. “It has been However, all our members are fully
online classes during the schools’ a hard year for us, but we have been operational and providing the same
closure period and then came to working daily to adapt to the Maltese quality educational experience.
school for face-to-face lessons when measures,” she says. “When we FELTOM maintains contact with
we were allowed to reopen in August.” closed we set online lessons and when its members and is constantly
While Karl admits that student we opened again we looked for options lobbying government to ensure
numbers are not what they would for all our students to continue their that consultation on ELT related-
normally be, he says that the situation learning. Some of them could get measures are conducive with the
is not as bad as they had expected vaccinated and came back to school, current needs of the industry. In
with demand remaining constant. and for those who have a vaccine, but fact, we are aware that the Maltese
He adds, “We still have a steady fl ow their certifi cates are not allowed, we government is currently in bilateral
of bookings which keeps our classes are keeping the online classes, and we talks with other foreign authorities
and all our courses going and our are working to fi nd a solution.” to facilitate the recognition of other
teachers busy with lessons, albeit we bethan@studytravel.network vaccine certifi cates.”

NOvEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 45