Our shrinking English proficient work force

In this country of 7,100 islands where 170 living languages are spoken, it’s amazing how we became a bilingual nation, adopting both Filipino and English as official languages for communication and instruction. Filipinos can’t claim to be native English speakers as much as we would like to, but our work force can speak, write and read in this language better than our Asian neighbors. At least, that’s what we used to believe—that our proficiency in English is our biggest competitive advantage in the region.

There’s a consensus that our mastery of the English language has become our biggest edge in the global job market. That’s why we have a booming P25-billion business-process outsourcing (BPO) industry that employs more than a million Filipinos. The Board of Investments has been telling foreign investors about the country’s quality human resources: “Our people are highly educated. The Philippine literacy rate is 94 percent and 70 percent of the population are fluent in English.”

Unfortunately, this advantage is being eroded by rising competition from other Asian countries. A global English Proficiency Index released on November 15 by Education First (EF) Ltd. showed the declining mastery of the English language by our college graduates. Sadly, Singapore and Malaysia overtook the Philippines in the latest English-proficiency ranking.

Based on test data from more than 950,000 adults from 72 countries who took the Lucerne, Switzerland-based firm’s online English tests in 2015, the Philippines was ranked 13th in the English Proficiency Index by EF Ltd. We scored an English Proficiency Index of 60.33, while Malaysia had a higher score of 60.70. Singapore was the big surprise, posting a very high English Proficiency Index score of 63.52. Of the 19 countries in Asia, only Singapore was included in the top 10, at No. 6 worldwide. “For the first time, an Asian country, Singapore, is in the highest-proficiency band,” said EF, a privately held firm founded in 1965 by Bertil Hult and family. It concluded: “Every country in Asia, no matter how skilled, would benefit economically from higher English proficiency across a broader swath of the work force. To achieve that goal, however, these countries must learn from one another, measure their efforts and adjust their strategies according to what has been proven to work.”

The Filipino work force is the country’s richest resource. Our ability to communicate in English is one reason Filipinos are very much sought after by foreign employers, particularly the BPO companies. The decline in our English-proficiency level will have negative effects on our ability to compete in the global market. The whole country would suffer from a shrinking English-proficient work force, which would dissuade global companies from investing in the Philippines.

We cannot afford to lose our biggest competitive advantage. We need to relearn good English. The government and the private sector must work together to help address this problem before it gets worse. We need to improve our proficiency in English. We must dedicate resources and attention to restore the Philippines in its former glory. After all, from all indications, English will continue to be the official language of the global economy.