Health Minister Chris Fearne announced the closure of language schools across Malta last Friday, following a spike in COVID-19 cases for which language schools were mostly held liable. In fact, on Tuesday, Chris Fearne revealed during a press conference that clusters of cases had been found in 16 English language schools.
The Federation of English Language Teaching Organisations Malta (FELTOM) are now predicting a loss of 40 million euro with the possibility of more than 2000 jobs being left in manifest jeopardy.
Mass cancellations of bookings since the announcement have decimated the industry, with approximately 15,000 students choosing not to travel to Malta. This has led to several companies beginning liquidation processes.
It has been speculated that job losses are to occur even within industries indirectly linked to the presence of language students within Malta such as leisure, entertainment and accommodation industries.
A former employee who worked in a language school this summer opened up about the situation further when contacted by SideStreet Malta; “Teachers are working online now, but group leaders like me have been made mostly redundant” he explained saying that students are now returning to their countries of origin due to a lack of activities.
FELTOM said on Wednesday that language schools worked tirelessly to handle the larger than expected influx of students, but instead are now dealing with losses of up to €15 million in just one weekend.
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