SARS and English Teaching
Thank you for waiting. Finally...finally, I was able to figure out the Internet order form.
The Bureau of Health now tells us that SARS is under control. This appears to be the case, since far fewer people have been dieing recently. Regardless of the truth of this, people seem to be moving back into public. Restaurants have more customers and there appears to be more people on the MRT.
This comes at none too soon a time for the English teaching industry.
Corporate teaching companies have been hammered. Vast numbers of classes have been cancelled, and friends still working in the industry have had their schedules reduced to as few as 5 hours a week. The lost income is sure to damage a lot of companies. The crises is not over yet, and even if it ends soon, it is questionable if the market will ever be the same. Local companies are taking extreme measures that could affect the ability to corporate teaching companies to manage the situation. For example, companies are now splitting offices, arguing that a disaster would wipe out only half the company.
The children's market has shown severe problems as well. Attendance is down, as more and more parents keep their children at home. Summer is usually a high season for this market, and schools begin preparing in May and June by hiring more staff. While Taiwan postings on Dave's ESL Cafe and tealit.com still appear strong, ads in the newspapers have almost disappeared. With students and parents feeling uneasy about continued attendance public schools, who knows how they will react about voluntary English classes?
It remains to be seen how long it will take, or even if, the market can bounce back.
11:46:06 PM 
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