Page 7 - elgazette/ELG1812

NEWS
Inlingua Florida forced to close UK nursing

following family firm failure body lowers

By Matt Salusbury Key Biscayne, Brickell, Weston, with the case, brought in the test scores
Nine Inlingua language centres Tampa and Orlando to find them Miami-Dade County courts, allege
in Florida closed ‘abruptly’ in shut. Inlingua International, that Trujillo ‘directly or indirectly’ By Melanie Butler
November, stranding over 500 which licensed the schools to the had an interest in the Florida
students. Staff remain unpaid and local operator told the Gazette that language schools. The UK’s Nursing and Midwifery
students appear to have lost the their school in Washington DC What was supposed to have Council (NMC) have dropped
fees they have paid in advance. and other centres in the US were been a straightforward bankruptcy the Ielts Academic writing score
One student outside the Doral offering to take in the stranded case lasting a few days in the required by nurses from non-
branch told the Miami Herald students for free. County courts had dragged on English speaking countries to 6.5,
they’d lost the $6,000 paid for a All Inlingua centres in Florida from July, and by November the although the score for all other
course they’d recently started. were run by licensee Maria legal fees incurred were so massive skills remains 7. The scores for the
Many students, who have Cristina Ortega de Marcos, the the schools could not ‘sustain healthcare specific OET exams
lost the fees they have paid in majority owner of IF Multicultural themselves,’ according to an remain the same.
advance, risk losing their visa Interactive Solutions LLC, which email sent by Ortega de Marcos Requirements for nurses from
status unless they can transfer to operated the schools. This company to a teacher informing him of his English-speaking countries to sit a
other institutions. Students at apparently became embroiled school’s closure. language exam in order to register
the Orlando centre were advised in a complex bankruptcy case Jürg Heiniger, Inlingua in the UK were dropped when
to report to local language school that centred on a family member, International AG’s Switzerland- it became apparent that many
Open Hearts Language Academy Leonidas Ortega Trujillo and his based managing director, told the native speaker nurses did not
which is reported to have agreed to Panama-based LTG Foundation Gazette: ‘the schools in Florida are score 7 on the Ielts written paper.
take them. and Banco Continental, owned by no longer licensees of Inlingua’. Ielts’ own statistics show that
Those arriving at the centres the members of the Ecuador-based ‘The schools had a very good in 2017 native English speakers
in Aventura, Boca Raton, Coral Ortega family. reputation, students and teachers averaged just 6.4 for Academic
Gables, Doral, Fort Lauderdale, Court documents associated were happy, the results were writing.
good’ and they had more ‘severe shortage of 41,000, which is
Britain has a current nursing
INLINGUA DORAL, FLORIDA have any official information from after the country leaves the EU.
accreditation than the ISO
expected to rise to over 50,000
certification we have in Europe.’
Heiniger said that ‘We do not
The introduction of language
our former licensee’ other than the
exams, and the high levels
email sent to teachers explaining
required, has led to a rapid decline
Of the Inlingua Florida schools
from EU nurses. Nearly 15,000
 the closure. of applications for registration
closures, Heiniger noted, ‘the
EU nurses applied in June 2016.
 bankruptcy had nothing to do with Twelve months later the number
the Inlingua business’. had plummeted to just 46.
STOP PRESS Grafton College, Dublin has closed, leaving
23 teachers unpaid, further fuelling calls for
Inlingua Doral was one of many Florida teacher protection (see news on page 6).
centres to close its doors recently

Malay student sues teacher for missing classes

By Matt Salusbury Mohd Jainal Jamrin, who ‘refused’ to teach Siman’s class - informed of the English teacher’s
‘stopped entering her class’ in in breach of regulations. absence and visited the school,
In the first case of its kind, a February 2015 and was absent Malaysian Insight reported but no action was taken.
former secondary school student for all but a week of the rest that Siman told them in an The action seeks costs and
in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia of academic year 2015. Siman email that she and her class damages against the teacher as
is suing her former English and classmates then failed their were intimidated into signing a well as the school principal and
language teacher for ‘refusing to exams, ‘placing their hopes for a statement giving a testimonial district, provincial and national
teach the English language’ to bright future in jeopardy’. for their absent teacher. bureaucrats, on the grounds that
her, reports the Daily Express. It is further alleged that Jamrin Siman’s statement to the court they are ‘under a duty’ to provide
Court documents filed by the was instructed by the principal describes how from March to quality education, including
plaintiff, Siti Nafirah Siman, to fabricate his attendance August 2015, various education English, under the Education Act
name absent English teacher record, and that he at one point officials were repeatedly and the Federal Constitution.

editorial@elgazette.com 7

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