Despite having moved up 2 positions this year in the EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI) that measures language skills among adults, Mexico remains at a very low level.
With an average score of 459, our country ranked 87th out of 116 nations that together have 2.1 million non-native English speakers.
The results that will be released this Wednesday show that Mexican women have a slightly lower level of English (452 points) than men (467 points).
According to the index, although Mexico recovered with 8 points, it still remains in the second to last place in the Latin American region, just above Haiti, and below other nations such as Ecuador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Brazil, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Cuba.
In total, 14 states have a very low level and the worst ranked are Baja California, Tlaxcala, Campeche, Hidalgo, State of Mexico and Coahuila.
In contrast, the best-rated cities are Monterrey, Hermosillo, Chihuahua, Morelia and Cuernavaca, with Guadalajara and León left out this year.
The difference in scores between the best and worst city is 236 points, and between the states, 160 points, which indicates a significant inequality in English education in the country.
At a global level, the Netherlands maintains the first place in the index (636 points), followed by Norway (610), Singapore (609), Sweden (608) and Croatia (607).
In Latin America, Suriname is the country with the best performance, occupying the 27th place globally, followed by Argentina, both at a high level.
Among the report’s findings are a global decline in proficiency, with 60 percent of countries scoring slightly lower this year than last.
Asia is the region where English proficiency has declined the most, primarily in India and to a lesser extent in China.
The gender gap also persists, with men still outperforming women in 40 countries.
According to the index, English proficiency remains a reasonable indicator of a nation’s ability to produce goods and services that generate economic growth.
Source: excelsior
