The will to make education and tourism mix

Carmelo Abela, in his Talking Point The Education And Tourism Mix (August 17), touched upon a number of valid points and made various praiseworthy recommendations, many of which are common with the perspectives and aspirations of those who have toiled for long years to bring this sector to a healthy fruition and are today very concerned at the turn of events that have been ongoing for too many of the recent summers.

Similar to all good things, too much causes indigestion especially if not taken in small doses. Is it a matter that we have surpassed our peak of student numbers in summer or is it more a matter of not organising ourselves correctly and in advance for these numbers?

A number of schools have gained repute by organising themselves and their activities and are able to deal effectively even with their large numbers. Others might not be graced with this expertise and run their operations primarily and solely with their interests in mind, or perhaps they know no better.

The latter type of schools somehow always seems to be the ones to make the news and to get away with murder. The former could rightly ask why should they have to bother and sacrifice themselves when others seem oblivious of the harm incurred to one and all by their repeated omissions and lack of organisation?

Is it time therefore to revisit the entire situation from its very start to ascertain that all those who apply to open a school, or who run a school, have the education fundamentals and the skills to operate a school for English with all that it entails for the benefit of the student, and within the general context of our tourism industry?

Should the granting of a licence be an end in itself or should it be the start of a constant and effective monitoring process that therefore requires the will to constitute the proper resources and to deliver an all-round quality product?

While the minister at the time of reply quoted that a total of 2,332 teachers are on record to have a TEFL permit, one asks why schools found such great difficulties to recruit warranted teachers at least both last year and this year. This anomaly must be delved into urgently if we wish to avoid an oncoming crisis.

Luckily I learn that my colleagues at Feltom (Federation of English Language Teaching Organisations - Malta) are actively looking into the matter but I do not think they alone can resolve the problem.

I would agree that it is also time to assess the training programme for prospective teachers and believe that the Monitoring Board could and should do much in this regard.

The board has to its credit the establishment and running of an examination of proficiency in the English language. This has been highly successful, not in terms of passes that, alas, hover around only the 33 per cent level, but in terms of syllabus and the objectives it sets out to achieve. More initiatives of this kind are necessary. They demonstrate that the board has the ability to deliver.

As to teaching methodology, I do not subscribe to the axiom that one size fits all and that the Monitoring Board should centralise courses to issue one standard certificate.

I would rather call for the Monitoring Board to review the minimum course requisites, including the minimum teaching age, and to invest in resources to actively supervise the induction courses run by a small number of schools to ascertain from a practical point of view the quality of both training and assessment.

What we definitely need is to raise the professional profile of the EFL teacher and orient it more towards a career. I would also stress on the importance of refresher courses and their regularity for the continued renewal of the teaching permit, as is known to be the case in other tourism-related professions.

We regrettably bungled the entire host family accommodation scheme in that we pondered at length to set guiding and enforceable standards and soon after raised alarms on taxation, seemingly without knowing where our final port of call was. Now that the dust has settled, the fact that emerges is that the country has lost over one in every three licensed families which, in turn, has severely aggravated the accommodation situation particularly in summer.

I have known of attempts in the past to offer training and support to families wishing to host students to enable them to meet the recommendations made by my friend Mr Abela.

Perhaps there was not sufficient will power to proceed as the road is very tough but I am sure that, given the will to establish and enforce a national framework to put once again the entire language industry into proper shape, this task can be successfully achieved.

This national framework must also address the social responsibilities of erring schools to bring them in line with those of schools that already employ effective measures to give their students a healthy entertainment without causing havoc or a disturbance to all of us.

Malta cannot afford to have two weights and two measures in this regard, be it for us Maltese, our tourism industry and, particularly, the socially responsible schools: All are suffering irreparable and heavy losses at the uncontrolled behest of those who are less responsible.

About six years ago Feltom introduced alcohol-free parties for their member schools for all students under 18 years of age. Ironically the police were not at all forthcoming as the execution of the idea ran counter to some legal notice and could not be accepted.

Luckily nobody was prosecuted and today Feltom runs extremely successful, clean and varied parties no less than twice a week, each of which attracts well over 1,000 students. Evidently, where there is a will, there is the way.

Mr Stivala is principal of the NSTS-English Language Institute and founder president of Feltom.