According to an analysis by the Educational Economics Laboratory (LEE) of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, it showed that during 2021, 78% of job vacancies in Colombia had English as a requirement. However, in the same period, 49.8% of those evaluated in Saber 11 had the lowest level in this language.
«The average score in this area in 2021 was 49.8 out of 100 points; the highest since 2019 but lower than internal records ”, says the report from the Javeriana University.
The analysis also highlights that students from private schools tend to perform better in English than those who are part of official institutions. Likewise, the gap would be increasing and by 2021 it stood at 10.2%.
The Colombian regions with the best levels in English are: Bogotá, San Andrés, Cundinamarca, Quindío, Boyacá, Santander, Risaralda, Caldas and Norte de Santander. In contrast, Amazonia, Orinoquía and a part of the Pacific registered lower performance in this language.
“Although it cannot be concluded that English is the area with the lowest performance, compared to the rest of the areas evaluated in the tests, it has shown a worrying downward trend in the last three years,” the report explains.