MEXICO.- Up to 2011, statistics regarding mastery of the English language in Mexico showed that only up to a 3% of the population could be considered as English-speakers.
Teaching English is a mandatory, basic and free subject that is taught in public middle schools since 1926. However, the quality in the teachers that are assigned said subject is most of the times deficient and a great percentage of those "teaching" it don't even understand it.
As it was determined by the Mexicanos Primero organization, whose investigation "Sorry. El aprendizaje del inglés en México" (Sorry. English Learning in Mexico), revealed that teachers mainly arrive to classrooms due to nepotism and other reasons that have nothing to do with their academic background.
"The majority of them are just friends, family members or acquaintances from officials and union representatives, many are foreign visitors that just dropped in, unofficial workers that were deported from the US, as well as their children, who didn't have any further education than High School; in none of these cases were are talking about people with college and university degrees and least of all a competent certification" reported Mexicanos Primero.
According to data published by this organization, only 50% of the country's middle schools have English teachers, although this is a mandatory course. The other 50% ]who do actually teach the subject, have teachers who don't understand the language or are at a basic level of understanding (A1 and A2). As a result, a 97% of high school level students, failed their language use and comprehension exams.
Another point that the Mexicanos Primero investigation touches upon is the lack of data that measures the country's progress regarding the matter and provides concrete solutions to improve the education system regarding the teaching of English as a mandatory second language.
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