Thailand’s proficiency in the English language has been ranked in the lowest 10 percent in the world in a survey by one of the world’s leaders in international education.
Thailand’s global English language proficiency ranking of 62nd of the 70 surveyed countries ranked it alongside EL Salvador and Qatar, ahead of Cambodia (69th place) but well behind regional competitors such as Indonesia (ranked in 32nd position), Vietnam (29th), Malaysia (14th) and Singapore (12th).
Its global ranking for English proficiency has dropped 20 places in four years, which for the property and real estate sector cannot be good news given Thailand’s reliance on overseas non-Thai speaking buyers and investors.
Focusing solely on Asia, only Cambodia and Mongolia are ranked lower than Thailand.
Education First, which conducted the research, said the average level of adult English proficiency in the world has risen slightly since last year, but this increase is far from uniform across countries, regions, and age groups. Many countries have seen no significant change, and a few have declined.
Asia has a high level of English skill diversity, with three countries in the High Proficiency band as well as several in the lowest proficiency band.
Asia is by far the most populous region in the index, so this diversity is not unexpected, is said.
