The location of the Dublin School of English on Harcourt Street

The location of the Dublin School of English on Harcourt Street

AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE school announced its closure in the capital yesterday.

Dublin School of English, located on Harcourt Street, was one of the first English schools to be established in Ireland, but yesterday its students arrived for their classes only to find that it had closed.

In a statement released on its defunct website, the school said:

Years of mismanagement of the EFL industry in Ireland by the Department of Education and INIS have led to an ongoing crisis in the industry and created an environment within which operating a legitimate EFL school is an extreme challenge.

An investor or buyer for the school had been sought, but to no avail.

In 2015, international students held a protest over the 16 colleges – 15 which offered English language courses – which were closed in the space of a year.

New regulations were enacted in February 2016 in an attempt to tackle the escalating problem, but the Dublin School of English says that these have “abjectly failed to deal with the systemic issues in the industry”.

Dublin School of English has arranged that former students be enrolled in partner schools for the remainder of their course.

It is required for foreign students in Ireland to enrol in English language courses as a provision of their visa. The course must be completed within a certain period of time, so any delays in the course, such as a closure, could lead to students’ visas being revoked.