Nov. 20 – According to a study made by the British Council, India is lagging behind other countries including China in terms of spreading the use of the English language.

The report, “English Next India,” says the country’s larger education problems has led to a chronic shortage of teachers and quality schools despite a huge demand for proficient English skills to fuel its growth as a global software and IT center.

Author David Gradoll told BBC News:”The rate of improvement in the English language skills of the Indian population is at present too slow to prevent India from falling behind other countries which have implemented the teaching of English in primary schools sooner, and more successfully.” He adds: “China may already have more people who speak English than India.”

India will need to remedy its education system if it wants to remain globally competitive. The study reports that Indian universities are already lagging behind compared to other countries because of the quality of teaching and research, and “poor English is one of the causes.”

The study goes on to say English standards cannot improve without correcting the low levels of academic achievement found in students studying at government and private schools.

English is considered one of the country’s official languages with an estimated  ninety million speakers based on a 1991 census although only about 1 percent use it as a second language.