In August 2002, I issued a statement on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 1999 and the points and issues I raised six years ago are even more relevant today.
This statement on TIMSS 1999 on 16th August 2002 is reproduced here:
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:
Ranking of Countries in TIMSS 1999
(TIMSS scale average – 500)Ranking Maths Average Score
1 Singapore 604
2 Korea Rep 587
3 Chinese Taipei 585
4 Hong Kong 582
5 Japan 579
6 Belgium (Flemish) 558
7 Netherlands 540
8 Slovak Republic 534
9 Hungary 532
10 Canada 531
11 Slovenia 530
12 Russian Federation 526
13 Australia 525
14 Finland 520
15 Czech Republic 520
16 Malaysia 519
17 Bulgaria 511
18 Latvia 505
19 United States 502
20 England 496Ranking Science Average score
1 Chinese Taipei 569
2 Singapore 568
3 Hungary 552
4 Japan 550
5 Korea Rep 549
6 Netherlands 545
7 Australia 540
8 Czech Republic 539
9 England 538
10 Finland 536
11 Slovak Republic 535
11 Belgium (Flemish) 535
13 Slovenia 533
13 Canada 533
15 Hong Kong 530
16 Russian Federation 529
17 Bulgaria 518
18 United States 515
19 New Zealand 510
20 Latvia 503
21 Italy 492
22 Malaysia 492The 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)
Six years down the road, Malaysia failed to learn anything from TIMSS 1999 as from Malaysia’s disastrous results in TIMSS 2007 we have regressed – worse than the two earlier TIMSS (1999 and 2003) we had participated.
Where’s the Cemerlang, Gemilang, Terbilang ( Excellence, Distinction, Glory)?