There was an increase of 13.6 per cent in the number of foreign students on English language courses at English Language Teaching (ELT) schools last year, the National Statistics Office said today.

There were 87,190 students, with the majority attending English language courses in Malta coming from Italy (29.4 per cent), Germany (11.8 per cent) and France (10.5 per cent) and these accounted for more than half of total students.

Students aged 15 years or less made up the largest share, making up 32.2 per cent of total students. Students aged 50 and over were in the minority and numbered 5,741.

Females outnumbered males in all age categories and accounted for 59.7 per cent of the entire student population under review.

The busiest month for local licensed ELT schools was July, with 21,567 arrivals, This was followed by August and March with 10.8 and 10.0 per cent of total arrivals respectively.

General English proved to be the most popular course offered by local licensed ELT schools. A total of 62,317 students – 71.5 per cent – opted for this course last year. This was followed by the Intensive English course, with 16.5 per cent of total students.

Foreign students in ELT schools spent a total of 244,202 weeks in Malta. The average length of stay during the year under review stood at 2.8 weeks, down by 0.2 weeks when compared to 2016.

Students from Colombia recorded the highest average duration with an average of 12.2 weeks. These were followed by South Korean and Turkish students with an average duration of 9.3 and 7.2 weeks respectively.

The NO noted that teaching staff in local licensed ELT schools last year amounted to 1,225. The largest share of teaching staff (37.6 per cent) was aged between 18 and 24.

Female teachers accounted for 71.4 per cent of the total teaching staff. Non-teaching staff amounted to 759, of which 56.3 per cent were employed on a full-time basis.

Photograph by Alain Salvary

 

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