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English schools in Crisis

 
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reality



Joined: 13 Mar 2003
Posts: 105

PostPosted: Sat May 10, 2003 11:07 am    Post subject: English schools in Crisis Reply with quote

Cool

Last edited by reality on Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:40 pm; edited 1 time in total
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grahamb



Joined: 30 Apr 2003
Posts: 1945

PostPosted: Sat May 10, 2003 12:06 pm    Post subject: English language schools closing Reply with quote

From what I gleaned from the media, some of the recent school collapses were due to fraud. They obliged their students to sign contracts that committed them to pay considerable sums of money in advance, not to the schools directly, but through banks. When the people running these companies disappeared with the money, the banks continued charging students for classes they would never receive. In addition, hundreds of teachers lost their jobs, with the schools owing them several months' pay.
Perhaps students are now wary about approaching language schools for fear of being ripped off.
It may also be that there was an element of market saturation, ie too many schools chasing too few students.
I can't comment about Andalucia, but the market in Madrid is buoyant. A lot of my students have come to Madrid from other parts of Spain, so it could be that the demand for English teachers is becoming more focused on the capital.
What do teachers in other parts of Spain have to say?
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gsbcn08080



Joined: 26 Mar 2003
Posts: 73

PostPosted: Tue May 13, 2003 9:53 am    Post subject: schools closing down in Spain Reply with quote

All the schools that closed down in Barcelona were the big ones that used computers to teach students, apart from Brighton that was run by "a thief".
I think the reason they closed is that the method they used did not work, people did not really learn anything from computers and they had to pay a huge amount of money and as you mentioned through a loan from a bank and so on. People just stopped going there and they went bankrupt, the owners just left with the money before they lost it all.

The small schools that I know, and I have been here quite a while, are still there. They run normal classes and students pay them monthly or every three months. These schools are not doing badly if anything they are doing better recently. But English does not make you a millionaire, whether you run it as a business or whether you teach it, it is just not a multinational, it is a language and it is hard to learn so can't sell it as these schools did " come to Wall Street and learn perfect English in 2 weeks".
There's still plenty of work for qualified teachers, most of the people I met who could not find jobs were American, badly presented and with no qualifications or experience, these people would not find jobs in USA either if they wanted to teach English.
So I don't think people are not learning English in Spain, I think they just decided not to learn it in Wall Street, Opening etc and went back to the traditional small schools because it is where they got the best value for money. Just my opinion anyway.
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grahamb



Joined: 30 Apr 2003
Posts: 1945

PostPosted: Wed May 14, 2003 8:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I agree entirely. Big isn't always beautiful, and sitting someone in front of a computer is just an excuse for employing fewer teachers. There's no substitute for direct contact.
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slaqdog



Joined: 29 Apr 2003
Posts: 211

PostPosted: Thu May 15, 2003 6:31 pm    Post subject: small is often ugly Reply with quote

Quote:
students stopped going

Well, when Opening closed they had more than 60,000 students on the books and that is a lot of potatoes, but the company was mis-managed on a massive scale it was almost the same as a pyramid scam which worked so long as new students came through the door in large numbers. But when the general economy slowed down so did the number of new students and the system collasped.
As for "Spaniards generally having a very low standard of English", they are with the possible excepyion of the gulf Arabs they are the laziest students in the world, a small academy knows this and plays the game of 'Well done Jose you have done sweet fa all year, go up a level"
By the way, can we hear from these teachers who worked for three months for NO PAY! and can the suckers explain what was going thru' their tiny brains.
Slaqer
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fatgirl



Joined: 22 May 2003
Posts: 12

PostPosted: Sun Jun 01, 2003 1:50 pm    Post subject: Oh, dear! Reply with quote

One of my friends who worked in Oxford English school told me was set up by a very shadey character who was signing one year contracts up until the day before the school closed. These types of schools appear and disappear continually in M�laga so you have to watch out. There are a number of schools that have been running for years and generally treat their workers well.

Reality, it sounds like you got your hands burnt ! I am sorry you had such a bad experience here in Malaga
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