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Asian countries were among the top performers in maths and science, according to the latest reports of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS 2003). Fifty countries, including South Africa participated. TIMSS 2003 is the third in a four-year cycle of international mathematics and science assessments project of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) headquartered in Amsterdam. The International Study Centre, in Boston, released the results of the study today. View the full international release. The top countries in maths and science were Singapore, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong SAR, and Chinese Taipei. The HSRC has conducted these studies in South Africa in 1999 and 2003 and tested learners at the Grade 8 level in maths and science. South Africa had the lowest score in science and maths. Six African countries (Egypt, Tunisa, Morocco, Botswana, Ghana and South Africa) participated in TIMSS 2003. Comparison with TIMSS 1999 indicates there was no significant difference in mathematics and science scores in this period. Dr Vijay Reddy of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), who coordinated the study in South Africa, said at a media conference in Pretoria that South Africa’s scores reflected the largest distribution of scores in mathematics and science of all the countries that participated in the study. This means that there were very low as well as a few very high scores. Analysis shows that the large distribution is a reflection of the continuing inequalities in education in the South African society. The HSRC tested about 9 000 grade 8 learners in 254 schools in all provinces in November 2002. On the results of the South African National Study in maths and science, Reddy said there is a difference in performance among provinces, with the Western Cape, Northern Cape and Gauteng being the three highest performers. The three lowest performers were KwaZulu Natal, Eastern Cape and Limpopo. The top provinces had almost twice the scores of the lowest performing province. The Northern Cape showed the highest improvement in scores in comparison with TIMSS 99. Other provinces that showed slight improvements were Mpumulanga and Limpopo (Fact Sheet 1). Analysis of performance of students according to categories reflecting the former racially based department of education, indicates that learners in the African schools have the lowest scores, and learners in the former white schools have the highest scores. Learners in the former white schools have a score just below the international mean (Fact Sheet 2). Learners in these schools also showed an increase in performance from the 1999 study. The number of learners from other racial groups attending the former white schools has increased since the previous study When it comes to the high international benchmarks, indicating top performance internationally, 2% of South African science learners and 1. 6% of maths learners obtained scores at this level. This is higher than other countries in the lower end of the scale (Fact Sheet 3). Performance according to language, showed that learners who took the test in Afrikaans scored higher than learners who took the test in English. The learners who took the test in Afrikaans came mainly from the Western Cape and Northern Cape – the provinces who had the highest scores. (Fact Sheet 4) Reddy said when it comes to gender differences in performance, girls and boys performed almost equally. TIMSS 99 scores revealed that whereas there was no gender difference in national performance there was a difference in performance by girls and boys in African schools. In TIMSS 2003 there was no gender difference in any of the groups. Reddy said there is no single cause of South Africa's poor and diverse performance. Preliminary explanations could be linked to multiple, complex and connected sets of issues, including the following: The administration of the study (in November 2002) was in the midst of the curriculum change to the Outcomes Based Curriculum 2005, which because of the lack of content specifications, was revised to produce the Revised National Curriculum statements. The lack of content specification and the low overlap with the international curriculum contributed to a low score. Issues of poverty, resources and infrastructure of schools, low teacher qualification, poor learning cultures in schools. Language proficiency is a contributory factor but the issues of conceptual and cognitive demands placed on students in classrooms seem to be significant.
The results of the study will be further analysed and the full report will be released in April 2005. TIMSS 2003 Results.
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