Students Struggling with English Test

Josh Pringle
Sunday, January 31, 2010

Waterloo University wants to know why students leaving high school cannot pass a simple test of written English.

Thirty per cent of incoming students are failing Waterloo’s mandatory English Language Proficiency Exam.

That’s up five points from the 25 per cent failure rate a few years ago.

Managing Director of the English Language Proficiency Exam, Ann Barrett asks “what has happened in high school that they cannot pass our simple test of written English, at a minimum?”

Barrett adds even students with good marks out of Grade 12 can’t pass the test.

In BC, Simon Fraser English professor Paul Budra says we're not teaching writing properly at the elementary and high school levels.