Hopes of a post-COVID-19 return to normality this summer for the hard-hit language schools sector are at risk due to teacher shortages, industry figures have warned. The successful vaccination programme and low virus rates have led to a surge in inquiries to the schools with bookings of more than 11,000 until September, increasing daily since the sector fully reopened on June 1. Caroline Tissot from FELTOM, the Federation of English Language Teaching Organisations in Malta, said signs were “encouraging” and that schools were reporting increased interest and last-minute bookings from countries such as Poland, Czech Republic, Japan, Germany and the Baltic region. Tissot noted that the successful way with which Malta tackled the pandemic got much attention from the international media and the island is being chosen over countries like Spain and Germany. But optimism spurred by the global demand has been tempered by concerns over whether there will be enough teachers to cater for pupils. “We need double the number of teachers for the same number of students because of social distancing in classrooms,” a spokesman for one school said on condition of anonymity. “Teacher availability...