Language Proficiency Certificates awarded after tests, such as IELTS, are valid for a certain number of years. Once the validity period is over, one has to appear in the test once again. Does that mean that one who is declared by an international agency to be fluent in English forgets the language after, say, two years?
Perhaps, a fee for renewal might have been better! The renewal fee might actually be equal to the amount that is to be paid for appearing in the test concerned. In that kind of a situation, the certificate provider would have received the required fee, while the candidate would not be required to repeat the test again and again.
Academic certificates, for a Masters Degree for example, of any University the world over, are awarded for entire life. Why then the International Language Proficiency Tests are invalidated after a few years?
Are such language proficiency certificates something like medicines which necessarily have expiry dates? Once one learns how to swim, can one forget swimming after a few years? Capacity to read, write and speak in a language is comparable with capacity to swim; once you learn it, you never forget it.
Because unless the language is regularly used, the fluency will be lost.
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