Pinoys losing edge in English proficiency

Officials from the education and labor sector both agreed that the Filipinos' proficiency in the English language must be harnessed as other countries are improving at a relatively faster pace.

Sandra Aguinaldo's special report on GMA's 24 Oras on Thursday cited data from the Hopkins International Partners, an authorized company that conducts English proficiency exams in the Philippines, which shows that the average score of around 10,000 Filipino college students who took Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) is 631 out of 990.

The English proficiency of the Pinoy test-takers was at the intermediate level or equivalent to the B1 level of the European Framework's language proficiency.

"B1 is also the standard for English-speaking taxi drivers at the Olympics in Tokyo," said Rex Wallen Tan, general manager of the Hopkins International Partners.

The TOEIC scores of taxi drivers in Dubai were also higher compared to that of Filipino college students.

A separate study also showed that more than 90 percent of college graduates in the Philippines are not yet equipped for English-speaking roles in the Information Technology and Business Process Management industry.

"You can talk to a lot of employers and say they're having challenges in the Philippines hiring people, a lot of it is due to English proficiency," Tan added.

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED), however, believes that the Filipinos are not flunking the English language.

"The problem is the other countries in the other regions are catching up very fast because they are putting in policies to improve the English proficiency of their students while we are not," CHED chairperson Prospero De Vera said.

The Labor department also emphasized the need to catch up.

"Mas maging aggressive pa po tayo in terms of education and training. We have to address the demands of the future now kasi five to 10 years from now, iba na po 'yung mukha, iba na po 'yung klase ng trabaho na magkakaroon ang labor market," said DOLE Director-IV Dominique Tutay.

The Department of Education (DepEd) said it would "look into the foundations of the instruction and learning of the students."

"That is why we are strengthening our National Educators Academy of the Philippines to equip with a capacity to a systematic, holistic and professional development for our teachers,"  DepEd Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan said.—LDF, GMA News