DAP will challenge the constitutionality of the 2002 electoral constituency redelineation exercise if the Election Commission had abandoned the constitutional principle of “one-man, one-vote” as unsuitable and inappropriate for multi-racial Malaysia


Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang

(Petaling Jaya, Friday): Musa should present a White Paper in Parliament on the strategy to  be learnt from  TIMSS 1999 for  Malaysian students to rank among the world’s    top five   nations in  mathematics and science. 

The Education Minister, Tan Sri Musa Mohamad should present a White Paper in Parliament next month on the lessons to be learnt from  the Third International Mathematics and Science Study – Repeat (TIMMS-R) 1999 which Malaysian students participated for the first time, and the strategy for Malaysian students to rank  among the world’s top  five nations  in mathematics and science.  

Five Asian countries were the top performers in mathematics and science in TIMSS-R 1999, an eighth grade level test involving 38 countries and 180,000 students.  

The five Asian countries, led by Singapore and followed by South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan, had the highest average performance in mathematics; while for science the five top scorers were Taiwan, Singapore, Hungary, Japan and South Korea. 

Malaysia was placed 16th in mathematics and 22nd place  in science in the scoreboard for 38 countries.  

DAP has a vested interest to know the detailed results and analysis of Malaysian student performance in TIMMS 1999, and the pointers as to the future directions the country should pursue to establish Malaysia’s excellence in mathematics and science to become among  the world’s  top five performers in these two subjects, as it was the DAP which was responsible for Malaysia’s participation in TIMSS 1999, making the initial contacts with the organizers of TIMMS in 1996  and persuading the then Education Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak  on the matter.  

Musa should list out the lessons the Education Ministry has learnt from TIMMS 1999 to lay a solid  foundation for the  international excellence of Malaysian schools in mathematics and science  by aiming  to  become the world’s top five in mathematics and science,  as  I do not believe that  from the following results and  table of ranking of countries in TIMSS 1999, anyone can conclude that one of the lessons is that mathematics and science should be taught in English in primary schools from Standard One:  

Table 1: Ranking of Countries in TIMSS 1999

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, SAR

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

Russian Federation

526

 

Belgium (Flemish)

535

13

Australia

525

 

Slovenia

533

14

Finland

520

 

Canada

533

15

Czech Republic

520

 

Hong Kong, SAR

530

16

Malaysia

519

 

Russian Federation

529

17

Bulgaria

511

 

Bulgaria

518

18

Latvia (LSS)

505

 

United States

515

19

United States

502

 

New Zealand

510

20

England

496

 

Latvia (LSS)

503

21

New Zealand

491

 

Italy

493

22

International Avg.

487

 

Malaysia

492

 

Lithuania

482

 

 

 

23

Italy

479

 

Lithuania

488

 

 

 

 

International Avg.

488

24

Cyprus

476

 

Thailand

482

25

Romania

472

 

Romania

472

26

Moldova

469

 

Israel

468

27

Thailand

467

 

Cyprus

460

28

Israel

466

 

Moldova

459

29

Tunisia

448

 

Macedonia, Rep. of

458

30

Macedonia, Rep. of

447

 

Jordan

450

31

Turkey

429

 

Iran, Islamic Rep.

448

32

Jordan

428

 

Indonesia

435

33

Iran, Islamic Rep.

422

 

Turkey

433

34

Indonesia

403

 

Tunisia

430

35

Chile

392

 

Chile

420

36

Philippines

345

 

Philippines

345

37

Morocco

337

 

Morocco

323

38

South Africa

275

 

South Africa

243

The first lesson to be learnt from the results of TIMSS 1999 is that it is not the use of English  to teach mathematics and science in primary schools from Year One which is responsible for top scores in mathematics and science.

In the top 15 countries for mathematics, only Singapore (No. 1)  and Australia  (No. 13) use English to teach mathematics and science, as Canada is bilingual, using both English and French, while all the other 12 countries use their respective mother tongues to teach these two subjects.  Singapore uses the total immersion system of having English as the medium of instruction for schools – which Malaysia is not prepared to emulate.

The same applies to science, as apart from Singapore (No.2), Australia (No. 7), England (No.9) and Canada  (No. 14), all the other 11 countries use their respective mother tongue to teach the subject.

If TIMSS 1999 is not the source of inspiration for  the Education Ministry  to use English to teach mathematics and science in primary schools from Std. One,  where did it get this inspiration?

TIMMS 1999 has been used by the participating countries, except for Malaysia, for a public debate on the implications of its findings, whether there should be changes to or  reforms of  instructional practices and curricular arrangements to ensure higher levels of student achievements and the future directions and policy in the quest for excellence in these two subjects.

The Singapore Education Ministry has made public the  “key findings” relating to Singapore students who participated in TIMSS 1999 immediately after the release of the results in November 2000.  Why is Musa keeping the TIMSS findings for Malaysia under “lock and key” instead of reporting at the first available opportunity to Parliament and the nation?

There were sufficient data in the  TIMSS 1999 findings for Singapore  to analyse the performance of Chinese and Malay students in the island republic.  For mathematics, 96% of the Chinese students are in the international top half while 83% of the Malay students are in the international top half.  For science, 86% of the Chinese students and 61% of the Malay students respectively are in the international top half. 

The Malaysian Education Ministry should similarly make public the key findings relating to Malaysian students who participated in TIMMS 1999, particularly an analysis of the performance of the Malay, Chinese, Indian, Iban and Kadazan students in mathematics and science  to identify their weaknesses and the best methods to raise  their academic attainments.

Malaysian students lag behind their Singapore counterparts in all measures adopted by TIMSS 1999 for mathematics and science.

For instance, most Singapore students are in the international top half of TIMSS – 93% and 80% of Singapore students are in the international top half for mathematics and science respectively while only 69% of Malaysian students are in the top half of mathematics.

A high proportion of Singapore students also achieve excellent results – 46% and 32% of students reached the international top 10% in mathematics and science respectively; as compared to only 12% of Malaysian students in the top 10% in mathematics.

I do not have the data for Malaysian students in science in TIMSS, which should be made public in the White Paper on  the TIMSS-Malaysia report  in Parliament next month.   

(16/8/2002)


*Lim Kit Siang - DAP National Chairman