AmCham wants RP public school teachers tested in English

The American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (AmCham) wants the Department of Education (DepEd) to test public school teachers and their students on their English proficiency to determine the effectiveness of government efforts to arrest the deteriorating language skill of Filipinos.

John Forbes, executive director of AmCham, said they are awaiting the DepEd response to a proposal they made for wide-range testing of high school graduates in public schools on their English proficiency.

According to Forbes, aside from public high school graduates, teachers should also be tested.

The AmCham wanted to find out if government efforts to raise the competency of high school graduates in Math, Science and especially English to 30 percent by 2010 were gaining ground.

“The President, at the National Competitiveness Council last year, signed an administrative order instructing the education department to raise the quality of high school graduates in English, Math, and Science to 30 percent by 2010,” Forbes told The STAR.

“What we suggested was a means of testing that improvement,” Forbes explained.

Forbes stressed that they were not pushing for massive testing but a sample testing of a certain number of high school graduates and their teachers in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao from 2007 to 2010.

“Then statistically, you will measure whether you’re attaining the 30 percent improvement,” Forbes said.

The AmCham has recommended the use of the Test of English for International Communications (TOEIC) of the Educational Testing Service in assessing the English proficiency of public school teachers and their students.

Forbes said the TOEIC could also be used in screening applicants for teaching positions in public schools especially those who will be assigned to teach English.

“That was the proposal. We’re waiting to hear from them,” Forbes said.

The AmCham has been very concerned over the deteriorating English proficiency that has led to difficulty for some American companies operating in the Philippines to fill job vacancies.

Forbes said that this was very unfortunate since these available jobs in the outsourcing industry pay well.

AmCham had noted that the results of a Social Weather Stations survey last year for a self-assessment of Filipinos’ competence in English showed a drop in competency in understanding, reading, writing and speaking English.

These were results similar to the surveys in 1993 and 2000.