In an increasingly interconnected world, English has become more than a foreign language for Mongolians; it functions as a gateway to global knowledge, education, and professional opportunity. It is the dominant medium of academic research, international business, digital communication, and cross-cultural exchange. For countries such as Mongolia, where engagement with global systems continues to expand, English language proficiency is no longer optional but essential for long-term development and competitiveness.

Yet despite its growing importance, data suggests that Mongolia’s English proficiency remains at a developmental stage. According to the EF English Proficiency Index 2025, Mongolia ranks 95th out of 123 countries, with a score of 447, placing it within the low proficiency category and below the global average of 488. The EF English Proficiency Index evaluates countries’ English skills using data from millions of adults worldwide who voluntarily took the EF Standard English Test. Rather than testing entire populations, it analyzes self-selected learners, combining results from several versions of the test and normalizing them into a single score for each country. In its latest edition, the index assesses all four key language skills, reading, listening, speaking, and writing, and calculates national averages based on these results. Countries are then ranked and placed into proficiency bands ranging from very high to very low. 

Moreover, the data also reveals uneven skill development: learners perform relatively better in reading (463) and listening (423), while significantly lower results are recorded in speaking (389) and writing (390). This imbalance reflects an education system where English is often learned for comprehension rather than active communication.

At the center of this challenge is a shortage of qualified English teachers. Nationally, Mongolia has more than 6,200 English language teachers, yet 62 percent do not meet international competency standards, while only 32 percent are considered adequately qualified to teach English at a global level. This gap is reflected directly in classroom realities.

In Ulaanbaatar City alone, over 336,000 students study English across 332 public schools, supported by approximately 1,532 English and English-Russian teachers. Based on workload calculations, the capital city faces a shortage of around 210 teachers. As of March 11, 181 teaching vacancies remained unfilled in 87 public schools across the capital city.

In response, education authorities are actively discussing policy solutions, including the recruitment of foreign English teachers. According to the Capital City Education Department, hiring around 200 foreign teachers, particularly from countries such as the Philippines, would require approximately 3.9 billion MNT. Officials argue that this measure could help reduce workload pressure, improve teaching quality, and introduce more effective language teaching methodologies.

However, questions remain over whether this is a sustainable and fully effective solution. While foreign teachers may provide an immediate boost in exposure to fluent English and modern teaching methods, education experts often note that short-term recruitment alone cannot resolve structural issues such as teacher training quality, retention, and unequal distribution across schools. Without parallel investment in developing local teachers and improving working conditions, the impact may remain limited in scale and duration.

 Structural challenges

English is taught as the primary foreign language in Mongolia’s general education system, beginning in the third grade, and continues as a compulsory subject through to grade 12. In line with the revised education law, a foundational English curriculum was officially introduced at the primary level starting from the 2023–2024 academic year, marking a significant policy shift toward earlier language acquisition. Despite these efforts, learning outcomes remain uneven across the country. Data from the EF English Proficiency Index indicates a modest urban advantage, with Ulaanbaatar City scoring 454, which is slightly above the national average. This disparity underscores deeper structural inequalities, including uneven access to qualified teachers, limited availability of quality learning resources, and insufficient opportunities for authentic English exposure, particularly in rural and remote areas.

Beyond numerical shortages, deeper structural issues continue to weaken English education outcomes. One of the most significant is the limited attractiveness of the teaching profession itself. Teachers often face relatively low salaries, heavy workloads, and limited opportunities for professional growth.  

Concerns have also been raised about how the teacher training scholarship scheme has shaped perceptions of the profession. According to a third-year student from the English and German Language Department of the Mongolian National University of Education (MNUE), the policy has increased enrollment in teacher education programs, but not always for reasons of strong professional motivation.

“Not only English teaching, but teaching in general has almost lost its appeal because of the teacher training scholarship program. Since students who just meet the entrance exam threshold can study without paying tuition, enrollment has increased. However, there is no guarantee that all of them chose this profession out of genuine interest. Many may have selected it simply because it is free or accessible. This, in turn, creates a perception that teaching is an ‘easy option’ or a profession for those without other choices. It affects the training of qualified teachers and also influences the students’ perception of teachers,” the student said.

Such perceptions may further affect both the motivation of future teachers and the overall quality of teacher preparation, adding another layer to the ongoing challenge of strengthening English education in Mongolia.

Uneven access to language

Another critical factor is the persistent and widening gap between urban and rural education systems. Students in Ulaanbaatar City generally perform slightly above the national average thanks to better access to qualified teachers, learning materials, private tutoring, and greater exposure to English-language environments. In contrast, rural and remote areas continue to face significant structural challenges, including teacher shortages, limited resources, and weaker connectivity that restrict access to authentic English content.

This inequality creates a system where English learning outcomes depend heavily on geography rather than equal opportunity. In many schools, especially outside the capital and urban centers, English instruction remains largely focused on grammar rules, memorization, and exam preparation. Students often gain theoretical understanding of language structures but lack practical communication skills, particularly in speaking and writing.

These disparities are also reflected in national proficiency data, where productive skills remain significantly lower than receptive ones, highlighting a system that does not yet fully support active language use.

A clearer picture of this gap emerges from students’ experiences. An eighth-grade student from Arvaikheer soum of Uvukhangai Province said that opportunities for real communication practice are extremely limited in rural schools. “There are no English clubs at my school and no native speakers to practice speaking skills with. There were Peace Corps volunteers working at my school last year, but to be honest, it was very difficult to speak with them because my English was not that good,” she said.

Similar challenges are also felt at the teacher education level. A second-year student at MNUE, specializing in primary education, noted that while new initiatives aim to strengthen English teaching capacity in primary schools, the gap remains significant for students from rural backgrounds. “There is a program to support and prepare primary school teachers with English skills, because third graders now learn English through the Pearson platform. However, as a student from a rural area, it is still hard to improve my English, especially at times when young students are learning English through digital sources, and are better than adults at English,” she said.

These experiences reflect a broader reality: while policy reforms and digital tools are expanding access in theory, unequal infrastructure and limited communicative environments continue to shape very different learning conditions across regions.

Reforms and emerging supports 

Despite these challenges, Mongolia has begun implementing a range of reforms aimed at improving English education outcomes. One of the most significant policy shifts has been the introduction of a foundational English curriculum at the primary level starting from the 2023–2024 academic year. This marks an important step toward earlier exposure to the language, which is widely recognized as critical for fluency development.

In parallel, several national and international initiatives are being implemented to strengthen teacher capacity and expand access to learning. One such initiative, led by “EF Efekta”, is targeting over 7,000 students in Ulaanbaatar’s Nalaikh, Baganuur, and Bagakhangai districts, as well as vocational education centers. The program also provides AI-based English training for more than 10,000 individuals, including over 2,000 English and IT teachers.

These digital and hybrid approaches aim to reduce teacher workload while expanding access to more flexible learning environments. Additionally, short-term overseas training opportunities and professional development programs are being offered to teachers, although policymakers emphasize that long-term, structured, and sustainable training systems are still needed.

Alongside formal education reforms, English-language media has played a subtle but important role in language learning. Among these, The UB Post stands as one of Mongolia’s longest-running English-language newspapers, first published in 1996 and continuing to be published three times a week with an eight-pager. While global media consumption has increasingly shifted toward digital platforms, The UB Post maintains both print and digital formats, offering structured and consistent English-language exposure. Its availability on platforms such as PressReader has also expanded its international reach.

In the classroom context, educators at institutions such as the National University of Mongolia, MNUE, and some secondary schools have integrated newspaper articles into teaching practice. Teachers highlight that The UB Post provides authentic English that reflects real-world usage, unlike simplified textbook content. Articles are used for reading comprehension, vocabulary development, discussion activities, and critical analysis.

Students often find newspaper content more challenging than textbooks due to unfamiliar vocabulary and complex sentence structures. However, this difficulty also encourages independent learning and deeper engagement with the language. Exposure to journalistic writing helps learners become familiar with passive structures, reported speech, and concise descriptive language commonly used in professional communication.

From a pedagogical perspective, printed newspapers also support deeper cognitive processing. Research on extensive reading shows that consistent engagement with authentic texts improves vocabulary retention, reading fluency, and grammatical awareness. Print formats, in particular, encourage slower, more focused reading, allowing learners to annotate, reread, and reflect, practices that are often lost in fast-paced digital environments.

Internationally, similar models exist in countries such as Japan and South Korea, where English-language newspapers are widely used in education to bridge academic learning and real-world communication. In this sense, The UB Post serves a comparable role in Mongolia’s language learning ecosystem.

Need to build sustainable English learning environment

Mongolia’s English proficiency challenge is not simply a matter of curriculum design, but a complex systemic issue shaped by teacher shortages, uneven qualification levels, regional inequality, and limited access to authentic English-language environments. While recent reforms such as earlier English instruction in primary schools, digital learning initiatives, and the recruitment of foreign teachers represent important steps forward, these measures alone have yet to fully address the deeply rooted structural constraints affecting learning outcomes.

At the same time, supplementary tools like The UB Post illustrate how consistent exposure to real-world English can meaningfully support classroom instruction and help bridge gaps in formal teaching. By providing authentic language use beyond textbooks, such resources offer students additional opportunities to engage with vocabulary, structure, and contemporary usage in a practical context.

Ultimately, improving English language outcomes in Mongolia requires a long-term, multi-layered approach that goes beyond isolated reforms. It demands coordinated investment in teacher training and retention, equitable access to quality resources across regions, integration of technology, and the expansion of meaningful learning environments. As Mongolia’s global engagement continues to grow, strengthening English education is not only an educational priority, but also a strategic investment in future opportunity, social equity, and national competitiveness.

By D.CHANTSALMAA

Published Date:2026-05-08