83,000 English-learning foreign students last year

The number of students who came to Malta to enhance their knowledge of the English language in 2009 was 83,288, Education Minister Dolores Cristina told Labour MP Anthony Agius Decelis in reply to a parliamentary question.

Minister Cristina said there were also 10 learning centres offering courses in French, Italian, German, Spanish and Russian, but no information was available if there were foreign students attending such courses. Besides, there were 22 other centres teaching information technology and computing, as well as three centres teaching electrical technology, water technology and health and safety.

Answering another PQ by Mr Agius Decelis, Mrs Cristina said that according to the latest statistics collected by the supervisory board on the teaching of English as a foreign language, published by the National Office of Statistics on June 15, 2009, the sector was employing 1,340 workers in 2008. All of them were teachers, of whom 115 full-timers and 1,225 part-timers.

Asked what plans the government had for the sector, the minister said that a process had been started to revise Legal Notice 60/96 regulating the sector in order to make it better reflect today's needs. Through professional and adequate structures the government intended to ensure the optimal level of learning programmes offered by all schools teaching English as a foreign language. With this in mind the government had allocated €100,000 to the supervisory board in the 2010 Budget.

To a third question by Mr Agius Decelis Minister Cristina said no aid was given to anyone who wanted to set up a school for the teaching of English as a foreign language.