EO on contractualization due by March — DoLE

PHL graduates’ English edge seen narrowing

THE Philippines’ perceived advantage in English may be narrowing after a study found that Filipino university graduates as a group score below the target grade for high school graduates in some Southeast Asian countries.

“While the general consensus is that the Philippines is superior to its neighboring countries in terms of English proficiency, the results presented in the convention show that the advantage is greatly at risk with the improvement of English literacy in other countries such as Singapore and Thailand,” according to a statement issued by the Government-Academe-Industry Network (GAIN), Inc.

The findings, which were presented yesterday, pointed out that Filipino university graduates averaged a Common European Framework of Reference of Language (CEFR) grade of B1, lower than the CEFR B2 proficiency target set for high school graduates in Thailand and Vietnam.

CEFR is a standard used to measure language proficiency. A grade of CEFR A1 is the lowest while CEFR C1 is the highest.

The CEFR B1 average for Filipino university graduates is comparable to the proficiency of 5th and 6th grade students in native English speaking countries such as the US and the United Kingdom.

Research conducted by Southville Foreign University President Melva Diamante and Hopkins International Partners, Inc. General Manager Rex Wallen Tan showed that the average English proficiency score of a Philippine college graduate is 630 based on the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC).

“This is alarming considering that taxi drivers in Dubai, United Arab Emirates are expected to have a TOEIC 650 score and business outsourcing agents are expected to have a TOEIC 850 score,” according to the GAIN statement.

GAIN Founder and President Monette Iturralde-Hamlin said: “[ W]e have a problem.”

“We are globally competitive because we are good in English. But the results and the studies show that may no longer be true,” she said.

GAIN is a nonprofit organization that aims to identify and address the country’s workforce issues and competitiveness in the global market while Hopkins International is the sole authorized Philippine representative of the TOEIC.

Mr. Tan said that the CFER B1 score is likely the “best case scenario” as the study’s sample of 10,000 students came from the country’s richest and most literate regions.

He added that only between 3.2% to 10% of the graduates would get good jobs abroad based on the CEFR requirements.

The speakers likewise pointed the integration of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Economic Community as a concern moving forward.

“We are now competing with Thailand. Yet we were seen as the [ leading] Englishspeaking [country in the] region,” said GAIN Chairman Peter Laurel.

ASEAN integration has increased competition as neighboring countries like Thailand and Malaysia are exerting more effort into achieving higher English proficiency. — PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte is set to sign an executive order (EO) on contractualization by March, Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said.

“He promised that by March he will sign the executive order that we presented,” Mr. Bello said in a televised interview with reporters in Albay on Thursday.

The Labor secretary added that the draft he presented to the President will be subject to further review.

“He said he will study it first. Both of us will study it before he signs it,” Mr. Bello said.

Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) president Gerry Rivera said his group is disappointed by the delay.

“It would have been good if we had the executive order by now. We have been fighting for it within Philippine Airlines for nearly a decade,” he said.

Labor groups have said they will push for the passage of the Security of Tenure bill (House Bill 6908) which is currently pending in Congress.

HB 6908, which seeks to further amend the Presidential Decree 442 or the Labor Code of the Philippines, hurdled second reading on Jan. 23. It is one of the bills listed under the Common Legislative Agenda of the 17th Congress. Last month, Mr. Bello said “the labor department is targeting to regularize at least 300,000 contractual workers this year.” In order to attain the target, Mr. Bello said in a statement that he has “instructed the Undersecretary for Labor Relations to order all our regional offices to require all business establishments throughout the country to submit a list of their employees and the nature of their employment. At the same time, they must submit a program of regularization.” “Through our intensified labor inspections and voluntary regularization of collaborating establishments, we are expecting more workers to enjoy stable employment status. As President Duterte has committed, we are pursuing the campaign to stop this pernicious practice with more vigor,” Mr. Bello added.

According to DoLE, “there are 541 Labor Laws Compliance Officers (LLCOs) who conduct assessment and inspection of around 937,554 small, medium and big business establishments in the country. On top of that are 55 social partners composed of 45 labor groups, five employers’ groups, and five other organizations who were trained in Labor Laws and Social Legislation.” —