(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)