The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : IELTS becoming more popular in South India

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Tuesday, Sep 30, 2008
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IELTS becoming more popular in South India

Staff Reporter

IELTS is one of the world’s most recognised English language competency certifications.

KOCHI: Keralites have come third in the mean band scores by most frequent first language (academic) candidates who wrote the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) in the country.

According to the latest figures provided by the British Council, Tamil and Hindi-speaking candidates came first and second in the overall tally.

Telugu and Gujarati candidates bagged the fourth and fifth places.

The mean band score won by Malayalees in the listening section was 6.42.

Candidates from the State bagged a mean score of 5.99 in reading test and 5.88 and 6.17 respectively in the writing and speaking categories.

Candidates from Tamil Nadu led the tally with a mean band score of 6.47 and 6.26 respectively in listening and speaking sections.

Tests in 15 cities

Stating that the number of South Indians writing IELTS has gone up considerably, Kevin McLaven, First Secretary of Educational Services at the British Council in New Delhi, said the council administered the test in 15 cities in south India.

Mr. McLaven said there was 36 per cent increase in IELTS candidates over the past year in south India.

“Increasingly, South Indians are also looking at the U.K. for quality international educational opportunities. This can be ascertained based on the fact that there is an overall increase of 58 per cent in student visas issued from October 2007 to July 2008 compared to the same period the year before,” he said.

Mr. McLaven said that Indian candidates scored 5.97 in the IELTS test on an average basis. Recent data showed that more than 1.1 million candidates had taken the IELTS globally in the past 12 months.

This averages out to two candidates taking the test every minute. More than 1,800 U.S. universities and institutions, including all Ivy League schools recognise IELTS scores, he said.

IELTS is one of the world’s most recognised English language competency certifications.

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