Indians have outdone Chinese in English proficiency

According to the British diplomat, the average band score of Indian students is slightly above six on the IELTS rating scale of nine bands, which indicates that most of the users of the language are better than the average users.

“Indian students form the second largest market for IELTS, second only to China. But when it comes to proficiency in the language, Indian students score better than Chinese students,” he remarked. The IELTS exam is recognised by universities in different English speaking countries for admission to foreign students.

Kevin said he was in Punjab to celebrate the fact that the largest chunk of students taking the IELTS annually is from Punjab. “Punjab contributes to as many as 30 per cent of the students who take the exam in the country every year,” he said.

Presently, more than 6,000 educational institutions, faculties, government agencies and professional organisations around the world recognise IELTS scores as a trusted qualification to communicate in English. The IELTS exam is taken in 120 countries across the world every year. “Last year, about 1.1 million students took the exam globally of which 1.6 lakh students were from India,” Kevin claimed, adding that about 80 per cent of Indian students take the exam in the academic version while the rest take it under the general training version.

“This indicates that most of them are taking the exam for pursuing further studies abroad and going by the present trends, most of them aim to go to Australia,” he said. Manish Joshi, the North India Head of Examinations Services, was also accompanying Kevin. They were in the city to participate in the ‘Train the Teacher Programme’ being held in the state for the first time.