English language schools providing students to 'do Ireland's dirty work', Dáil committee to hear

Ireland benefitting from a 'constant supply of educated, but vulnerable' workers, 'who are less likely to know how to protect their rights or know who to complain to when things go wrong'.

A lack of adequate regulation of English language colleges in Ireland has led to the sector effectively operating as “one big visa school”, an Oireachtas committee is set to hear.

The English Language Students' Union of Ireland (ELSU) will tell the education committee on Tuesday that the refusal of many colleges to refund foreign students’ fees during the covid-19 pandemic, and the fact no Government supports were provided for those students, exposed the sector as being more concerned with having those students working in the economy than in providing them with an education.

“By failing to offer refunds to these consumers after the product they paid for was not delivered, the schools and the Government seemed to be collectively telling the students that the money they paid was not in fact for education, but rather for the privilege of being here to do Ireland’s dirty work during a pandemic,” Fiachra Ó Luain, labour rights officer with the ELSU, will tell the committee.

Mr Ó Luain will tell the committee many foreign students who come to Ireland to study English “save for years and often sell their cars, even homes, in order to be able to invest in their education and professional development here in Ireland”.

“They are net contributors and have added billions of euros of extra value to our economy over the years,” he will say.

Controversies

The English language schools sector has been beset by controversy since before the pandemic for myriad reasons, from colleges closing unexpectedly leaving their students without refunds, to complicated visa scams that see foreign students securing study visas in order to work in Ireland without actually attending the school with which they have registered.

Mr Ó Luain will tell the committee there are many issues with the sector, not least the fact Ireland has transitioned from a net-emigration to a net-immigration society, with colleges then “given free rein to run the sector on a for-profit, and unquestioningly pro-growth, pro-greed basis”.

He will say schools are routinely employing teachers with masters degrees at a rate of just €13 per hour, while others use advanced-level students as teachers, despite not having the necessary qualifications.

He will claim also the ‘20 hour’ rule — which mandates that foreign language students can only legally work 20 hours a week — is routinely abused.

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He will say it is a “fable” used so Ireland can benefit from a “constant supply of educated, but vulnerable” workers, “who are less likely to know how to protect their rights or know who to complain to when things go wrong”.

“We seem to expect students to become fluent in ‘wink-wink-nudge-nudgery' before English,” he will say, adding  most English language students work much more than 20 hours a week in order “to survive... and very often have to do so for less than the minimum wage, sometimes for less than even half that”.