New visa requirements mean that EU students will go elsewhere, writes Karen Brandes, while Brigid Hoffmann worries about the consequences for language learning
The slump in school trips to the UK described in your article does not surprise me at all (‘Almost unsaleable’: slump in school trips to UK blamed on Brexit, 26 December). I’m an English teacher at a German secondary school, and in 2022 I have to take my A-level English class on a week-long trip. In the past 12 years I’ve always taken them to England. We spent a lot of money on those trips: four nights in a hotel, meals, theatre visits, guided tours, plus the money the students would spend on food and shopping. It was always possible to go to the UK because, it being a school trip, I could take all the students, even the ones with a non-European passport.
However, this has now changed. Some of our students have a non-European passport (we have students from Russia, Turkey, Morocco and Tunisia). These students would have to apply for a visa and pay the fees. Or stay at home. Neither is an option for our school. So, with a somewhat heavy heart, I booked a trip to Dublin.
Karen Brandes
Cologne, Germany
