Newsroom
Colombian government brings in Cambridge ESOL for new English certificates
5 November 2007
The Colombian government has begun a partnership with University of Cambridge ESOL examinations to help develop new national English language tests. The tests come as part of the bid by Colombia’s Ministerio de Educación Nacional to equip the population with English skills for work and higher study.
School-leavers have always had their English skills tested as part of the Examen de Estado leaving certificate, but the government wanted to bring these tests into line with international standards. They asked Cambridge ESOL to produce a new test, incorporating CEFR standards and levels, which more than 500,000 Colombian school-leavers have already recently taken. Cambridge ESOL is also providing training and support so that in the future, Colombia will be able to produce its own language tests incorporating the levels.
The development of the new English component of the Examen de Estado is just one element of the collaboration with Cambridge ESOL. The test for final year Colombian university students also includes an English language component from Cambridge ESOL, which will be taken by more than 100,000 students. Meanwhile trainee English teachers have recently been entered for the FCE (First Certificate in English), fully sponsored by the Ministry of Education, and a new project has just been launched for the re-training of in-service English teachers which uses TKT (Teaching Knowledge Test) as the final assessment.
