Politician renews lobbying for Indian-owned language exam as foreign companies make millions from study-abroad craze.
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Developing an Indian-run English language proficiency test for those who wish to study abroad “won’t be easy” but could help open up opportunities for more students, experts have said after a politician urged the government to adopt the idea.
Parliament member Kartikeya Sharma told the country’s parliament that the English-language testing industry had “grown significantly” since the COVID-19 pandemic, generating a “hefty annual revenue of several billion dollars” for the “foreign entities” running the exams.
The number of Indians studying abroad has skyrocketed since the pandemic, climbing from 444,559 in 2021 to 765,411 in 2023, according to the government.
To secure a place at an anglophone institution overseas, prospective students must score sufficiently high marks in tests such as the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) and TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language)—two of the most widely accepted English-language exams.
However, Sharma raised “significant” issues with these exams, such as the “high cost” for test takers, who typically pay about 17,000 rupees ($204).