Indonesia Ranks 80th in English Proficiency Index

TheIndonesia.id - Recent report shows that Indonesia was ranked eightieth in a global English Proficiency Index, decreasing down to six place compared to last year’s position.

Released by education company English First (EF), the EPI report revealed that compared to fellow Asian countries, Indonesia is ranked in fourteenth place. Even though overall score increased from 453 to 466, Indonesia hasn’t moved from the ‘low’ category, along with countries such as Nepal, Pakistan, and Colombia.

“[The report] contains valuable insights for policy makers looking to strengthen the English capability in their own respective countries,” executive vice president for academic affairs at EF Christopher McCormick said on Monday, November 29.

EF also emphasized that high English proficiency correlates with wider opportunities that can contribute to individual and national economic growth.

Furthermore, this report provided recommendations tailored for Indonesia. For government and educational authorities, EF recommended English to be taught in vocational training centers and to be made available to adults in general. It’s also equally important to re-assess the current qualification for English teachers and re-train them, so they have the sufficient and updated knowledge and skills to be teaching in public. The firm also saw it important for English programs to be broadcasted with subtitle instead of dubbing.

EF also encouraged companies and organizations to continuously support employees’ development by enabling communication between teams from different countries. Identifying individual obstacles in learning English and providing employees with necessary education must also be prioritized.

Data for the report was taken from more than two million test takers from 112 countries who took the EF Standard English Test (EF SET). The Netherlands ranks first in the index, followed by Austria and Denmark in the second and third place, respectively.

In fourth spot is Singapore, which also makes it the highest-ranking Asian country. In the Southeast Asia region, Indonesia is also below the Philippines (18) and Malaysia (28).

Academic operations manager at EF Yunita Yanti, however, admitted that the data has a probability of not representing the whole population, particularly in the outermost and underdeveloped regions with very limited access to the internet.

“It’s also possibly why Surabaya, Bandung, and Jakarta are among the highest-ranking cities on the list,” Yanti explained.