Thailand’s English proficiency deteriorates for third year in a row
Thailand has dropped further on the latest annual English Proficiency Index, a publication that assesses English proficiency in countries globally released by Switzerland-based education company EF Education First.
The report shows that Thailand’s ranking dropped from 74 out of 100 countries last year to 89 out of 100 this year.
Thailand’s English language proficiency scored 419 out of 800 under the company’s new point scale, which is considered “very low.” For comparison, the Netherlands scored 652, which is the highest out of all the countries surveyed this year.
Last year, Thailand scored 47.62, which was considered “very low” proficiency as well.
In 2018, Thailand ranked 64 out of 88 countries with a score of 48.54, a drop compared with 2017, when the country was placed 53 out of 80 with a score of 49.7.
Failure of the educational system
Overall, Thailand now ranks 20 out of 24 countries surveyed in Asia and seven out of the eight surveyed in Southeast Asia, just topping Myanmar. Singapore scored 611, ranking number one in Asia with “very high” English proficiency, followed by the Philippines with a “high” proficiency score of 562.
While the news comes as no surprise for English-speaking expats living in Thailand, it never stops to astonish why an economy so dependent on international tourism and thus on English speaking capabilities is so incapable of providing an educational framework that actually teaches Thai people at least a basic working knowledge of English, simply for the sake of job creation in the tourism industry.
Thailand has dropped further on the latest annual English Proficiency Index, a publication that assesses English proficiency in countries globally released by Switzerland-based education company EF Education First. The report shows that Thailand's ranking dropped from 74 out of 100 countries last year to 89 out of 100 this year. Thailand's English language proficiency scored 419 out of 800 under the company's new point scale, which is considered "very low." For comparison, the Netherlands scored 652, which is the highest out of all the countries surveyed this year. Last year, Thailand scored 47.62, which was considered "very low" proficiency as...
Thailand has dropped further on the latest annual English Proficiency Index, a publication that assesses English proficiency in countries globally released by Switzerland-based education company EF Education First.
The report shows that Thailand’s ranking dropped from 74 out of 100 countries last year to 89 out of 100 this year.
Thailand’s English language proficiency scored 419 out of 800 under the company’s new point scale, which is considered “very low.” For comparison, the Netherlands scored 652, which is the highest out of all the countries surveyed this year.
Last year, Thailand scored 47.62, which was considered “very low” proficiency as well.
In 2018, Thailand ranked 64 out of 88 countries with a score of 48.54, a drop compared with 2017, when the country was placed 53 out of 80 with a score of 49.7.
Failure of the educational system
Overall, Thailand now ranks 20 out of 24 countries surveyed in Asia and seven out of the eight surveyed in Southeast Asia, just topping Myanmar. Singapore scored 611, ranking number one in Asia with “very high” English proficiency, followed by the Philippines with a “high” proficiency score of 562.
While the news comes as no surprise for English-speaking expats living in Thailand, it never stops to astonish why an economy so dependent on international tourism and thus on English speaking capabilities is so incapable of providing an educational framework that actually teaches Thai people at least a basic working knowledge of English, simply for the sake of job creation in the tourism industry.
