Call on Musa to release the details of how  Malay, Chinese, Indian, Iban and Kadazan students score in mathematics and science  in  TIMSS 99


Speech
- when  launching the DAP “Restore Chinese education freehold status” movement in Batu Pahat
by Lim Kit Siang

(Batu Pahat, Monday): In 1996 and 1997, I had pressured the Cabinet and the then Education Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, why Malaysia had not taken part in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) – the largest, most comprehensive, reliable and important international study of educational outcomes ever undertaken in the world involving 45 countries, more than 15,000 participating schools and more than half a million students. 

I said this was a grave omission and oversight for Malaysia which wanted to build a world-class educational system and become an international centre for educational excellence – as it reflected poorly on Malaysia’s educational system. 

TIMSS was not just a “horse race” among nations to judge the relative ranking of student scores among the participating countries, but even more important, a major source of information for discussion of the quality of education around the world. 

I even wrote to the Dutch-based International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IAE) and the International Association of Educational Progress (IAEP) which conducted the three international surveys on science and mathematics achievements on cross-national attainments of different education systems – the first one in 1964, the second in the 1980s and the third in 1995 - to inquire how a country could take part in its international surveys.  I received a very prompt reply from the IEA Co-ordinator for Professional Studies, Dr. Barbara Mala-Minkiewicz who said that a country could participate in IEA surveys even if it is not an IEA member. 

I conveyed the IEA reply to Najib, urging that Malaysia should take part in such future studies. Najib’s response was positive and I am glad that Malaysia has taken part in the TIMSS-R (Third International Mathematics and Science Study – Repeat) 1999,  in which 180,000 students  in Grade 8 (Form II) from 38 countries participated. 

The results of TIMSS-R were released in November 2000. Singapore emerged first in mathematics and second in science, while Malaysia  was placed 16th in mathematics and 22nd position in science out of 38 countries. 

The rankings of countries in TIMSS 1999 are as follows:   

Ranking

Maths

Average Score

Science

Average Score

1

Singapore

604

Chinese Taipei

569

2

Korea, Rep. Of

587

Singapore

568

3

Chinese Taipei

585

Hungary

552

4

Hong Kong

582

Japan

550

5

Japan

579

Korea, Rep of

549

6

Belgium (Flemish)

558

Netherlands

545

7

Netherlands

540

Australia

540

8

Slovak Republic

534

Czech Republic

539

9

Hungary

532

England

538

10

Canada

531

Finland

535

11

Slovenia

530

Slovak Republic

535

12

Russia Federation

526

Belgium (Flemish)

535

13

Australia

525

Slovenia

533

14

Finland

520

Canada

533

15

Czech Republic

520

Hong Kong

530

16

Malaysia

519

Russian Federation

529

17

Bulgaria

511

Bulgaria

518

18

Latvia (LSS)

505

United States

515

19

United Stets

502

New Zealand

510

20

England

496

Latvia (LSS)

503

21

New Zealand

491

Italy

493

22

International Average

487

Malaysia

492

 

The Singapore Education Ministry has given the following  “key findings” relating to Singapore students who participated in TIMSS 1999 immediately after the release of the results in November 2000: 

The Malaysian Education Ministry lags in accountability, transparency and democracy in failing to report to Parliament and the nation the results of Malaysian students participating in TIMSS 1999, and the secrecy for the past 22 months on the TIMSS results should end. 

DAP calls on the Education Minister, Tan Sri Musa Mohamad to release the details of key findings concerning Malaysian students  from TIMSS 1999 and in particular, to report as to  how  Malay, Chinese, Indian, Iban and Kadazan students score in mathematics and science  in  TIMSS 1999.

(12/8/2002)


*Lim Kit Siang - DAP National Chairman