The Federation of English Language Teaching Organ-

isations Malta (Feltom) has recently submitted a number of proposals to the Malta Tourism Authority calling for student residences as a new category of accommodation.

Feltom president John Dimech, who was giving his reactions to Monday’s editorial in The Malta Independent on the subject of foreign students, explained that a good number of accommodation providers in the two and three-star hotel category, guest houses, and holiday apartments have been going through a lean period of business and were looking for new business opportunities to achieve a better return on their investments.

In fact, a number of them have already recognised the potential and viability of the English Language Teaching (ELT) sector and have become important partners of language school organisations. The ELT market will allow them to tap an industry that is still not saturated and enhance the product that language schools can offer.

Mr Dimech expressed his satisfaction that, in the pre-

budget document, the govern-ment plans to continue focusing on the ELT sector by increasing the number of host families

Another positive measure, he said, was facilitating the issue of visas, within the parameters allowed by the Schengen Agreement, to students coming from non-EU countries.

Mr Dimech said that Feltom had been pleased by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi’s declared intention, on 1 May, to establish Malta as a leading international education destination, and added that the introduction of a student visa would be more conducive to promoting Malta in this way. In its recommendations, Feltom also suggested exempting host families from paying tax on income from students, as was the case in Ireland, the UK, the USA and Australia.

Mr Dimech pointed out that the fall of around 700 in the number of host families in 2006 was equivalent to a reduction of Lm42,000 for the government from licences (Lm40 per family) and contributions to the Malta Tourism Authority (Lm20 per family). He added that an exemption was likely to be more favour-able for the families, the sector and the national economy because more schools would generate more activity and profit.

Malta was also facing a shortage of qualified teachers, as well as host families, he said. “While schools can find alternative accommodation in hotels and apartments, some are currently unable to find sufficient qualified teachers, particularly to meet the significant influx of Spanish students arriving in Malta this summer,” he said.

Feltom was also considering applying for European Social Funds to train prospective EFL teachers, focussing on training married women who did not have the necessary qualifications, The Malta Independent has learnt. Mr Dimech said that Feltom would be holding a meeting with the Employment and Training Corporation (ETC) to discuss this proposal.

He voiced the federation’s concern about the bad publicity resulting from the unruly behaviour of some foreign students and said that the publicity itself could be more damaging than the students’ behaviour. “While we have already called for support from the authorities in the form of greater enforcement on their part, we also recognise that this issue needs to be addressed by the stakeholders and that some action needs to be taken by the schools themselves,” he said.

“We constantly encourage our member schools to control organised outings better and to emphasise the need to avoid vandalism, indecency and a lack of cleanliness in public places and to inform students about such guidelines,” he added.

Feltom has repeatedly submitted a number of recommendations to the authorities for a campaign against the unruly behaviour of a number of foreign students.

However, Mr Dimech pointed out that Feltom is still pressing the authorities for concrete action and feels that with a lack of support and enforcement from the government, this issue will remain a recurring problem.