Our high English proficiency has been our ticket to the world. For decades, foreign investors have been banking on our English skills, entrusting their industries to us. Thousands of our highly skilled engineers work in the Middle East constructing bridges and developing cities. Hundreds leave the country to work in Taiwan, Canada, and Hong Kong touching lives as caregivers and domestic helpers. Thousands of our nurses fill the hospitals of America and the UK saving countless lives. Our technical skills and our grasp of the English language are a perfect match for these industries.

But in recent years, our English proficiency has dwindled down. Studies done by reputable international organizations such as the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) report that our English skills are now a disappointment. In an article written by Karl Wilson published online by The National, in 2008, Filipinos scored an overall mean of 6.69 for listening, writing, reading, and speaking, a very low number based on international standards. On a side note, in the same proficiency test, Malaysia scored a higher overall mean than the Philippines with 6.71. These numbers were supported by the alarmingly low digits presented by another online article written by Eunice Fernando and Sarah Azucena and published by Lanka Business Online. Fernando and Azucena writes, "official achievement tests given to graduating high school students in the 2004-2005 school year showed that only 6.59 percent could read, speak, and comprehend English well enough to enter college. Some 44.25 percent had no English skills at all."

This decline is blamed on the following: the low capacity of teachers, the usage of unchecked and error-filled textbooks, and the proliferation of non-English shows on television that leads to less exposure to the English language.

How can the problem be solved? Excellence comes with a price. If we want to stop our English proficiency from further deterioration, we should invest time, money, and resources. There are government-initiated efforts meant to reverse this decline, and they seem to be successful. In the same Karl Wilson article, there was a "slight improvement" in English in low-performing secondary schools in the Philippines according to the results from the National Achievement Tests of 2007 and 2008. GMA News also reports that results from a study conducted in 2008 by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) as commissioned by the American Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines (AmCham) and the Makati Business Club (MBC) showed "improvements compared to previous studies done in 1993, 2000, and 2006. These improvements, however, still fall short of meeting international standards. There are still a lot to be done, and the Philippine government needs all the help it can get.

Ande Geronimo, EFL Teacher Trainer: Your guide to online English teaching http://queerenglish.blogspot.com/.