Coronavirus: Layoffs in English teaching sector, closure of schools, due to student cancellations

FELTOM, the Federation of English Language Teaching Organisations in Malta, said that the government measures to mitigate the Covid-19 crisis are not enough to protect employment as confirmed by a number of English language schools closing down and laying off their staff.

“FELTOM’s position remains unequivocally clear: the measures announced by government will not protect employment and this is something which we are already confirming since a number of English language schools have already started closing and laying off their staff,” the federation said in a statement on Friday.

The ELT sector, the statement read, was the first to start feeling the effects of the pandemic, effects that were confirmed by a Deloitte survey commissioned by FELTOM in the first week of March which described the situation as “the perfect storm” for all English language teaching organisations.

A second study published by Deloitte and published on Friday, shows how to date, the number of cancellations has increased from 4,000 student arrivals as at 5 March to 20,000 student arrival cancellations by 16 March. These figures are equivalent to 7,500 cancellations per week across all the schools, an increase of 400%.

“The financial impact of these cancellations to date is expected to lead to an estimated loss in contribution of €8.8 million and an estimated financial loss to the economy of €23.7 million.

“Amidst this scenario, our prime concern is the staff and the schools who are the pillars of Malta’s successful and thriving ELT sector, a sector that has always been an important contributor to Malta’s tourism industry and the economy at large,” FELTOM said.

The federation appealed to banks to be more responsive to their clients’ communications especially in the light of the fact that there have been no instructions nor legal notices to banks on how these measures can be taken advantage of.

“ELT schools, just like most other sectors are now in very dire straits and people are being put on forced leave. We need proper and serious measures to safeguard all employees on whose expertise this successful sector has been built.”