As of next year, learning English language will be compulsory for state primary school students in Mexico, in a bid to better prepare students for a globalised world and encourage more students to study abroad.

President Peña Nieto, who is backing the initiative to introduce compulsory ESL, visiting a primary school. Photo: gob.mx.President Peña Nieto, who is backing the initiative to introduce compulsory ESL, visiting a primary school. Photo: gob.mx.
“This has to do with President Peña Nieto’s view of what needs to be done in terms of education, research and innovation in Mexico”

Announcing the initiative, Minister of Public Education Aurelio Nuño Mayer said he hopes to realise his ambition that “In 10 or 20 years, the country will be bilingual”, despite concerns about a shortage of qualified English language teachers in Mexico.

“In 10 or 20 years, the country will be bilingual”

“English is the language through which we can all communicate; it is a tool and cornerstone for professional development and to modernise,” he said.

As of next year, all state schools will be required to provide English language teaching to pupils from the age of six.

The move is part of a concerted campaign to increase access to outbound mobility, which also includes the Proyecta 100,000 and Proyecta 10,000 initiatives to boost student movement between Mexico and the US and Canada, Martha Navarro-Albo, deputy director general for scientific and technical cooperation in Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told The PIE News.

It was announced shortly after Nuño Mayer was made Minister, and is “one of the highlights of his coming into office”, Navarro-Albo said.

“I think that is a very important initiative, because we have to start somehow,” she added, explaining that less than 1% of Mexico’s population is fluent in English.

Navarro-Albo predicted that the initiative will prompt more students to spend time studying overseas in Anglophone destinations, giving them a grounding in English language.

The fact that the teaching will be provided by the state will have a “great impact” in widening access to study abroad, she forecasted, adding that study abroad programmes in Mexico, as in the rest of the world, tend to be very “elitist”.

“I think it is a presidential initiative more than just the Minister of Education,” she added. “This has to do with President Peña Nieto’s view of what needs to be done in terms of education, research and innovation in Mexico.”

Echoing her statements, Bruno Perron, president of CLASS education, an agency with offices across the country, said that the move “will bring more awareness to the importance of learning English for Mexican youth”.

“Once a student starts to learn English, he or she will want to continue improving his or her skills and will demand to study abroad”

“Once a student starts to learn English, he or she will want to continue improving his or her skills and will demand to study abroad in order to further improve, given the limitations of studying in Mexico,” he commented.

The limitations of English language education provision in Mexico, including having many non-native speakers teaching, is likely to be a significant driving factor, as students pursue the best quality teaching they can find.

Once they have a foundation in the language, students will be keen to further their skills in a country where they can fully immerse themselves in the language, he predicted.

He added: “Finding the professors [may be problematic] as there are not that many qualified English professors in Mexico and even less native language ones.”

The government has not yet said how much funding it is planning to funnel into the initiative or how it will ensure there are enough qualified teachers to ensure it is implemented effectively.

“We have to train teachers because our English teachers in public schools in Mexico teach in Spanish, so we have to do a lot of things, but we have to start somehow,” commented Navarro-Albo.

Further training will be needed if the programme is extended further up the curriculum, Navarro-Albo said, but she did indicate that it may later be rolled out to secondary level.

“It is very new,” she noted. “I think this will eventually elevate to secondary and tertiary but we have to start with primary.”

[Source:- pie news]

By Adam