NI troubles deter language students

The head of Belfast's main EFL (English as a Foreign Language) provider has blamed the ongoing political instability for the …

The head of Belfast's main EFL (English as a Foreign Language) provider has blamed the ongoing political instability for the North's failure to match explosive growth in the sector south of the border.

The EFL sector in the North generated only £3 million sterling last year, less than 1 per cent of what was raised in this State.

Mr Tony Ridgeway, director of Queen's University TEFL centre, said that while the sector had grown since the ceasefires were called almost four years ago, it remained very sensitive to setbacks in the peace process.

He isolated two events which have had been particularly harmful to the EFL market in the North - the Omagh bomb and the Drumcree parade.

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"We lost a very large proportion of our Spanish market after the Omagh bomb, and that hasn't come back," he said. Two Spanish nationals were killed in the explosion. "Drumcree is a factor as well because that is at the beginning of the peak time for the business, particularly for younger students. It gives us all the wrong publicity at the wrong time of year," he said.

If the political situation were to improve large-scale TEFL organisations would, Ridgeway said, act quickly to establish operations in Belfast.

"I think that when the atmosphere does change here, the big boys are ready and waiting to move in," he said.

At present Queen's and the University of Ulster are the only institutions offering British Council-approved EFL courses in the North.