Concern is growing that some language schools teaching English to foreign students in Ireland are little more than fronts for them to come here to find work, reports Marie O'Halloran
A language school in Dublin city which is being investigated by the Garda closes down unexpectedly and the administrator disappears. Students turn up to find no classes, no materials, no computers and no teachers.
The Criminal Assets Bureau and the National Bureau of Fraud Investigation are called to another school. Some €380,921 (£300,000) is seized. Other inquiries reveal a school with up to 2,000 students on its register but just two classrooms to accommodate them.
Things are far from well in the world of teaching English to foreign-language students, where visa scams, fake certificates of attendance and "fly-by-night" colleges are damaging the reputation of internationally recognised quality schools in Ireland.
Some schools are allegedly supplying students with fake attendance certificates, for a fee of up to €1,270 (£1,000). These are necessary to renew residence permits for students from outside the European Economic Area. Gardaí are investigating a number, particularly those aimed at Chinese and Russian students.
In all, five schools are under "in-depth investigation" and a larger number are being "monitored" for comparison between the numbers on their registers and the size of the facilities available. The professional qualifications of the teachers are also under scrutiny.
The Academic Council for English Language Schools, which has overall authority for language schools in Ireland, believes that many of these institutes are not schools at all but "visa factories".
Jim Ferguson, the chief executive, says the council has 110 recognised schools on its website. However, there is no mandatory licensing system for language schools. One can be set up with no supervision or approval. If the school wants to get on the council's list, there are certain criteria it has to meet, such as having qualified teachers with primary degrees.
"People will ring up to check the criteria but once they hear what is required, often they don't contact us again," says Mr Ferguson.
There are 600,000 foreign students in Britain and 30 per cent go to recognised schools. Of the estimated 200,000 such students in Ireland, some 80 per cent attend recognised colleges, according to the Academic Council, which says Ireland has a growing reputation for quality English language teaching.
That reputation, however, faces a major challenge in the light of abuses of the visa system. One Chinese student, afraid to be named, claims that part of the problem is that many Chinese students come to Ireland to work rather than study.
"Ireland has to decide does it want students or workers," he says.
Students apply for visas to attend recognised language schools, after paying a commission of $1,000 to a Chinese agent who arranges the visa and the school. The student pays up to $4,800 for six months tuition and the first month's food and accommodation with a host family in Ireland.
Once in Ireland, a majority will study and most work up to the permitted 20 hours a week to fund themselves. If they have an 80 per cent attendance record, pay a fee for a further period of study and have sufficient funds they can usually renew their residence permit for the duration of the paid tuition.
Many students opt to change to a cheaper college for their second stint but in some cases work rather than attend language school and then either pay for a school attendance record or continue to work illegally. Recognised schools check up on their students if they are not attending regularly.
However, a number of schools have large numbers of students on their register but place no requirement on them to attend. Inspectors from the Academic Council for English Language Schools turned up at one school to discover no pupils in attendance.
The Chinese student believes the problem starts when visas to Ireland are issued to potential students.
"If someone does not have reasonable English an agent will tell them to go to Ireland, because the Irish embassy does not interview. The British embassy interviews everyone. An interview will easily show if someone has good English," he says.
"In my opinion it's a bit stupid the way the Irish system is operated. If someone has studied English at primary and secondary school and can't speak it after that, they are not going to speak it in Ireland and are going for work, not language."
Not everyone agrees. Visa applications should not necessarily presuppose a knowledge of English, according to Pat Short, a member of the board of RELSA, a language schools association. He insists that a Chinese student could come to Ireland with no English and through the total immersion induction programmes and tuition available, develop relative fluency.
Nonetheless, language schools are concerned about abuses and fear that the Government could stop issuing visas altogether, as happened in Australia when too many students stayed on permanently.
The Department of Justice and the Department of Foreign Affairs, with representative associations connected to language schools are preparing a number of initiatives to pre-empt abuses, including turning "loose guidelines" into stringent regulations.
The situation is expected to improve with the long-awaited appointment of nine immigration officers to Moscow and Beijing, who will decide on visa applications directly in a system struggling to cope with the number of applications. The officers are expected to start in June.
However, while the authorities have begun to react, so too have students. A number complain that as gardaí investigate schools they are harassing students seeking to renew their visas, particularly if they attend "cheaper" colleges. Gardaí maintain however that they have to ask questions about their studies and school attendance.
Two students who contacted The Irish Times say however that they are made to feel "as if we've done something wrong". With the hassles and persistent if low-level racist taunts from young Irish people, they have decided to go home. One is withdrawing his application to do a post-graduate degree in Dublin and the other is giving up her plans for an undergraduate course.
One puts it starkly: "Why should I pay £6,000 for a degree course when I can do a similar course elsewhere and be treated properly."