Dáil debates

Tuesday, 30 June 2015

Other Questions

English Language Training Organisations

3:55 pm

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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113. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 203 of 17 June 2015, if it is appropriate that students from recently closed colleges such as MEC who had already paid fees are being offered a solution that involves them paying even more money to schools they had not been able to afford; if she is satisfied that Ireland's reputation as a destination for English language learning is not being damaged by this approach to both learning and finding solutions when problems such as these arise; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25821/15]

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The closure of the Modern Educational Centre English language school in May was the latest in a long litany of private English language schools closing down and leaving international students high and dry after paying for courses, not to mention teachers being left equally high and dry. What does the Government intend to do about this not only in terms of the unfairness visited on students but also the extraordinary international reputational damage being done to what is a very important sector for the country and its economy?

Photo of Jan O'SullivanJan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The relationship between students and the recently closed English language colleges such as MEC - Modern Educational Centre - is based on a private contract between the student and the provider; therefore, there is no obligation on my Department or the State to provide refunds or pay for alternative provision. For that reason, one of the key objectives of the task force I established jointly with the Minister for Justice and Equality to assist affected students was to develop solutions that could provide alternative courses at a significantly discounted rate for students impacted on by the closures who were not covered by learner protection arrangements. The MEI offer to provide course places at a fee of €60 per week continues to be available to genuinely displaced students. This fee which was calculated on a cost provision basis represents a significant discount of 70% on the standard fees for an MEI school in acknowledgement that a fee has already been paid to the closed college. Furthermore, individual MEI schools have facilitated displaced students by allowing them to make weekly payments instead of requiring the total course fee on enrolment to provide further support in managing the payment.

My two priorities, in introducing the reforms to the international education sector, have been to protect the students who come to study in Ireland and to protect our national reputation for offering high quality education. These reforms will deliver on both of these important priorities. As one of the reforms is a student protection scheme, when students pay money, that money is protected and cannot be taken away by the person to whom they have paid it.

Photo of Michael KittMichael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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There is only time for one supplementary question.

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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We bailed out the banks to the tune of billions, as well as foreign bondholders who, frankly, did nothing for the country and were here just to exploit us and profiteer from us. We bailed them out, although we should not have. However, we do have an obligation to bail out foreign students who come here and who in good faith pay money for courses and then, because of our failure to properly regulate the English language school sector, are left high and dry. One Brazilian student said:

I do not even have €60 spare a month. How am I supposed to pay €60 a week? Am I supposed to starve? I have done nothing wrong and I am being punished.
That is what is happening. This is also an important sector for us not to allow reputational damage to be done to the country, never mind the injustice being visited on students. We should step in and bail them out. Judging from the briefing I received recently from EFL teachers, into which I do not have time to go, the EFL sector is an unregulated mess. That is a tragedy considering its huge potential if it was regulated properly. One big resource which does not cost us much to produce is our capacity to speak the English language. We should not waste it by allowing private schools and cowboys to wreck our reputation, leaving students high and dry and teachers in an awful position. The Minister should bail out the students, for their sake and the sake of our reputation.

Photo of Jan O'SullivanJan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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It is precisely for the reasons the Deputy has enunciated that we have decided to reform the system. The vast majority of providers do, in fact, provide a good service, but there are people who have totally exploited the system and used it for immigration and work purposes. We want to root them out. That is why we will have new rules that will have to be complied with, including having directors of companies declared, a protection scheme for students and a requirement that a certain standard be met. That is all going to happen and it would have happened sooner, but court cases were taken against us, as the Deputy knows. However, it is about to happen and I am very confident that this is how we will restore the reputation of the international education centres.