The Rector attended the unveiling of the International Spanish Language Assessment Service, together with the ministers of Foreign Affairs and Education. Telefónica Educación Digital will be the company in charge of the technological development and marketing of SIELE.
The president of the Cervantes Institute, Víctor García de la Concha; the rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), José Narro Robles; the rector of the University of Salamanca, Daniel Hernández Ruipérez; and the president of Telefónica, César Alierta Izuel, unveiled at the headquarters of the Cervantes Institute this morning the International Spanish Language Assessment Service (Servicio Internacional de Evaluación de la Lengua Española, or SIELE), a system that will allow a certification, through electronic means, of degree of mastery of the Spanish language.
The minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, José Manuel García-Margallo, and the minister of Education, Culture and Sports, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, also participated in the unveiling of SIELE (www.siele.org), a project open to the participation of all universities in Spanish-speaking countries. In addition, a protocol was signed at the event for the start of their collaboration with Telefónica Educación Digital, the company in charge of the technological development and marketing of SIELE.
The project, which the three promoting institutions presented before the King and Queen of Spain in Mexico City on June 30th, will officially start today with the goal of becoming the benchmark electronic exam, and one that can be taken in a way both flexible and fast. The exam was created as a response to the growing demand for evaluation and certification of Spanish proficiency, and it focuses on Spanish students worldwide – 21-million people, according to the latest report by the Cervantes Institute – as well as on native speakers.
SIELE will coexist with the Spanish certification known as DELE, an internationally recognized official certification with no expiration date, sought yearly by around 70,000 candidates, and that is given in more than 900 test centers in about a hundred countries. The Rector of the University of Salamanca, Daniel Hernández Ruipérez, highlighted the significance of this project that will help to “build bridges between Spain and Mexico, between Europe and America, but also between our cultural universe and that of those who would want to come close to us through the study of our language.”
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