Education in Ireland part 5, English Schools


Our posts on education in Ireland wouldn’t be complete without a description of the schools that teach the English language in this country. At first glance it all seems very simple. If you have the money, you can buy a course to get an education in a foreign country.

If you decide to look for a school teaching a foreign language abroad, type the following into Google ‘schools of the English language in Dublin’ and hundreds of such schools will appear. So how will you decide on the school that is right for you and only you?

What are the main criteria’s to look for when picking such a school? In our opinion you should pick the school according to the aims you wish to achieve while you are there. You have to be certain about what you wish to learn during the process and completion of the school.

Some people, who already know English (to an extend) would want to continue learning the English language until they have the ability to freely talk with people who speak English. Others would want to learn English so as to freely communicate with people their own age. Possibly some people immigrated to a country where English is the primary language and they need to have basic knowledge of the language. Or maybe some people want to learn the English language so as to further their education in an English college.

These types of aims are by far not the only ones that attract students to schools that teach English. Since there are so many different reasons for learning English it is hard to get the result(s) you are looking for in just one English school. English schools understand this as well as we do, so they focus on a specific category of students.



For example, if you want to continue learning English in, for example, Colleges of Further Education, and you require a high standard of education in the subject, then consider going the following. In Ireland there is an organisation called ACELS (Accreditation and Co-ordination of English Language Services) that connects English schools with the highest standard of education. The are only around ten such schools in Dublin.

The schools with different standards of Education are managed by the Association of well known language schools a.k.a MEI-RELSA. This organisation is sort of like a guild of language schools, made by the schools themselves and one that accepts schools with a high educational standard into it.

For those that plan to continue their education in an English college it is crucial to pay attention to the English schools that prepare their students for taking the IELTS and TOEFL exams.

Those people that came to Ireland so as to have a good time and learn the English language have a wider range of schools to choose from. But if you or your child are more interested in education, then it is better to chose college courses that have at least 20 hours of lessons every week, than Summer language courses.

Lots of people only look at the price the school charges for a week but forget to check how much hours of lessons the school offers per week.



There are also language courses in colleges where a year-long education is available, these courses give the student a visa which in turn gives the student permission to do work for up to 20 hours per week. It’s no secret that these colleges usually take in those students that are more worried about getting a visa than learning a language. Obviously, it’s quite easy to foresee the result of such an education of the English language.

Now we will talk about the prices of learning English in language schools in Dublin. If you divide all language schools in Ireland into three groups (highest standard, medium and ‘colleges for visas’), the cost of each of the types of colleges will almost be the same.

So upon deciding which language school that is best for you, you shouldn’t just focus on the cost, but also on what you aim to achieve through learning the English language. If your aim is to receive a good education but you don’t have the money for a year-long course, then it is better to go to a language school with a high standard of education but for a shorter period of time than a language school with a low standard of education but for a long period of time.

Also, you have to consider that a year-long education cost much more than an education for a shorter period of time on account of the cost of food and shelter.



Also we would like to make the following statement. If your child has decided to try and learn English (no matter what the reason), the age of your child plays an important part in the picking of the school. If your child starts learning a foreign language at an early age, in a place where everyone talks in that particular language, the easier it will be for him/her to learn it, especially the pronunciation.

Luckily, in Ireland, secondary schools accept children from 12 years up. This method of learning a foreign language may be one of the most productive.

In conclusion, we would like to note that you shouldn’t let the hardships of learning the English language scare you. If learning it is necessary then you must learn it. Also, we have the ability to help you with this problem. We have lived here for quite a long time and have also learned English in similar courses (we had to because in Russia we learned German instead of English), so we are almost professionals on the subject and can help you decide on the school that is right for you.

If, to solve this problem, you decide to turn to a tourist agency, then we hope that they can help you better than we can.

Have fun learning the English language!