Magister Academy of St Julian’s has received its certificate of accreditation from Prof. Mark Borg, chairman of the accreditation council of the Federation of English Language Teaching Organisations of Malta (Feltom).

Prof Borg said that two non-member schools have applied to join Feltom this year, subject to accreditation. One of the schools has already been inspected by independent inspectors appointed by the accreditation council. Six Feltom member schools applied for accreditation voluntarily this year in order to benefit from the 50 per cent discount on the accreditation fee before accreditation becomes mandatory for Feltom schools as from 1 January 2008. Some of these have already been inspected, while inspections will be carried out on the rest in the next few days.

Feltom president John Dimech pointed out that the federation launched the accreditation scheme last year and two schools have already been accredited. Were it not for Feltom, which has been behind the formulation of almost all legislation pertaining to the English language teaching sector in Malta, the sector would not have grown to what it is today, he said.

Much of the legislation about English as a foreign language was originally instituted by Feltom and then co-opted by the education authorities, although the accreditation scheme goes further, he added.