Teachers and Proficiency

It surprises me that many people still believe that the Philippines can boast of good English skills. Some articles hype our proficiency because of nurses being shipped abroad and the mushrooming BPO industry. However, statistics echo another reality.

Here is an exerpt from June 4, 2009's The Economist article, "E For English":

"Never mind the pupils, teachers have been flunking English for years. In 2004 only one in five teachers passed the English-proficiency test. The effect on pupils is plain to hear. Last year the country winced when the 17-year-old winner of the Miss Philippines World beauty contest failed spectacularly to answer in English the usual questions posed by judges in such events.

Call-centres complain that they reject nine-tenths of otherwise qualified job applicants, mostly college graduates, because of their poor command of English. This is lowering the chances that the outsourcing industry will succeed in its effort to employ close to 1m people, account for 8.5% of GDP and have 10% of the world market by the end of 2010"

This is something worth looking into, don't you think?