OSAKA -- Three language school chains will provide free lessons to former students of the failed Toza Gaigo Gakuin English-language schools in the Kansai region.
ECC, NOVA and the YMCA will accept some of the students who paid tuition to Alles, a company that operated 18 Toza schools in the region, under certain conditions, they announced here Friday. For example, the students are required to pay 15,000 yen to 20,000 yen for registration and 3,000 yen to 13,000 yen for textbooks and other learning materials to take classes at the new schools.
According to lawyers administering the bankruptcy of Alles, about 3,500 students are covered by the relief plan. However, only about half can actually take lessons because the three language chains are limiting the numbers of the students accepted, the lawyers said.
The Toza chain was first established in Osaka in 1982. Expanding to Tokyo, management was divided in April 1997 into Alles and Toza, which operated 16 branches in the Kanto region. All the schools in both the Kanto and Kansai regions were closed in April.