Coronavirus and TEFL: 5 impacts of the pandemic
Remember the good old days? You should. They weren’t that long ago. Back in 2019, it was possible to board a flight to Indonesia and hop to Vietnam for the weekend, take up teaching positions in South Africa without thinking about quarantine, or go for TEFL jobs right across Europe without a thought for vaccine statuses. Hardly anyone had heard of the acronym PCR. Pandemics were the stuff of movies. *Sigh*
Fast forward to today and it’s safe to say that the world is a very different place. All sorts of things have been upended, not least of all the TEFL industry. Yep, we’ve seen some mega changes in the sector in the last 18 months; more than in any other 18-month period we can remember. This guide lists just a few of the major impacts of the pandemic on TEFL, with a thought for how travel might look in the future and what Covid means for on-site teaching placements.
On-site teaching is struggling
On-site teaching courses were one of the first parts of the TEFL industry to go into complete shutdown when the pandemic started swinging in March of 2020. Closures to borders from Vietnam to Taiwan meant that there was simply no way that people could get to where they needed to be. There was no way to jet into Taiwan to start teaching under the shimmering steel skyscrapers of Taipei, for example. Lots of companies delayed their on-site courses or cancelled them altogether. And, with many TEFL hotspots remaining closed, disruption to this part of the industry is likely to continue for the foreseeable.
Online teaching is booming
In tandem with the decline in on-site teaching came a boom in demand for online teaching. It wasn’t just borders that closed all over the globe. Schools also shut up shop as lockdowns spread from China to Colombia. That meant that students had to go online to get their fix of English learning. Thankfully, there was already a fast-growing online sector, but the number of available positions skyrocketed and many teachers who once worked in classrooms started to work via Zoom. That’s a trend that’s very much continuing throughout 2021. Despite a crackdown on online TEFL tutoring in China, there are still loads of remote positions available, and a greater demand for web teachers than ever before.
Travel looks very different
Covid-19 took the world by storm. There’s no disputing that. It’s had an impact on all sorts of aspects of day-to-day life, from how we shop to how we work. There’s also been major disruption to the globalized economy, and nowhere has that been felt more acutely than in the travel industry. Some airlines are still operating at something like 20% capacity. Meanwhile, there are still complete border shutdowns to some of the world’s most popular travel destinations, including Taiwan, Vietnam, Sri Lanka – there’s loads. The places we can visit have imposed extra restrictions, whether that means hotel quarantine on arrival, locator forms, or testing at the airport. It seems as though there’s a new normal coming for travel; one we’ll all have to adjust to in time.
A boom in remote-learning tech
The boom in online TEFL teaching that was sent into the stratosphere by the coming of coronavirus has been fueled by a newfound interest in all sorts of remote learning methods. Conventional teachers in schools across Asia and Europe were forced to adapt when the pandemic hit. They started using instant messaging apps, video calling, and website resources to keep their curriculums going. It’s likely that it will herald an era of digital learning in education more generally, with pupils making greater use of tech in school.
Certain destinations started drawing bigger crowds
As Covid ripped through the travel industry, travelers were faced with a roulette wheel of destination options. Mexico quickly became one of the gathering points of the digital nomad crowd. The borders there remained open as the first wave was slow to materialize, so remote-working teachers flocked to the white-sand beaches of Cancun and the wave-bashed bays of the Pacific coast. After that, the Maldives was able to open and folk headed that way, followed by Zanzibar and then parts of Europe. The result? Places that TEFL teachers might not have considered soon started topping their travel to-do list.
This list offers just five insights into the way coronavirus has impacted the TEFL industry. If you’d like to share any more, be sure to add your thoughts to the comments below. Or, if you’re ready to start traveling, teaching, and earning, be sure to head over to our courses page for more information.