Foreign language students attending English language courses at local licensed English Language Teaching (ELT) schools last year reached 56,675, 28,822 more than in 2021, the National Statistics Office said.

It said the largest share of students (16.3%) came from Italy followed by France (13.1%) and Germany (12.6%). Overall, 70.5% of total students originated from an EU country.

The largest share of language students fell within the 15 and under age bracket, accounting for 24.1% of the total students following ELT courses.

Students aged 50 and over were in the minority and numbered 4,639.

Female students outnumbered males and accounted for 62.3% of the entire ELT student population.

The absolute majority of courses (99.3% of total student weeks) were held physically.  The average number of student weeks in 2022 stood at 4.3, a decrease of 0.6 compared to the previous year.

With an average of 14.5 weeks, students from Colombia recorded the highest number of student weeks, followed by South Korean and Chilean students with average student weeks at 13.3 and 13.1 weeks respectively.

July was the busiest month for local licensed ELT schools for course attendance, accounting for 21.6% of the annual total. August and October followed at 17.5 and 9.7% respectively.

Staff employed in these schools numbered 1,129, the majority being teaching/academic staff (54.7%).