The 2012 PISA results assessing 510,000 15-year-old students in 65 countries in mathematics, science and reading have been hailed as “wake-up” calls in the United Kingdom and the United States provoking much national soul-searching about the mediocrity of their education systems compared to top-performers like Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.
In Malaysia, however, the government and the education authorities are very complacent and continue to slumber away although Malaysian students are far behind their peers in UK and US in the assessment in all the three subjects.
Compared to the 2009 PISA, Malaysia improved in math but fell in scores for science and reading: math 421, science 420 and reading 398.
These compare unfavourably with the scores for 15-year-old students in UK (math 494, science 514, reading 499) and US (math 481, science 497, reading 498).
Based on the difference of 38 points on the PISA scale being equivalent to one year of schooling, the 2012 PISA results indicate that Malaysian 15-year-old students are 1.9 to 2.7 years behind their peers in UK in the three subjects: math behind by 1.9 years; science behind by 2.4 years and reading behind by 2.7 years.
It is not only Malaysian 15-year-olds who are 1.9 to 2.7 years behind their peers in the United Kingdom in math, science, and reading (and three to five years behind their peers in Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Macao and Japan), it is clear that the Malaysian political leaders and education planners are many years behind their counterparts in UK and US in their poor response to the 2012 PISA results.
For instance, up to now, there is not a single word from the Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, with regard to Malaysia’s poor performance in the 2012 PISA!
Muhyiddin cannot just fall back on the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025 (MEB), for the 2012 PISA results have exposed the utopian nature of its objective to make a double quantum jump from the bottom third to the top third of the PISA assessment by the 2021 PISA – a feat no nation had achieved in four triennial PISAs.
May be the MEB should more appropriately termed “Miracle Education Blueprint” for expecting the Malaysian education to achieve a miracle by 2021.
Malaysia is presently stuck in the bottom third of the PISA system for all three subjects, i.e. 421 for maths, 420 for science and 398 for reading, when Malaysia needs to achieve scores of 450 for maths, 442 for science and 446 for reading to get into the middle third and scores of 532 for maths, 511 for science and 508 for reading to get into the top third of the PISA assessment.
This is based on 2012 PISA as from the four triennial PISA tests of 2003, 2006, 2009 and 2012, the threshold for each third of the assessment rises, for instance, the top performer in maths in 2003 was Hong Kong with a score of 550 while Shanghai topped the 2012 PISA with 613.
Similarly, the top performer in science in 2003 was Finland with a score of 548 while the top performer in 2012 PISA is Shanghai with a score of 580; and the top performer in reading in 2003 was Finland with a score of 543 while Shanghai topped the 2012 PISA with 570.
Based on the 2012 PISA without taking account that the thresholds for each level would be raised in the next ten years, Malaysia would have to improve a minimum of 111 points for math, 91 points for science and 110 points for reading between the 2012 PISA and the 2015, 2018 and 2021 PISA to get into the top third of the assessment.
This is virtually asking for a miracle from the Malaysian education system, why the MEB is more fit to be described as “Miracle Education Blueprint”.
As a result of constant bombardment and criticism for the 2012 PISA since its publication on Dec 3, the Education Ministry has announced a special committee to “elevate” the ranking of Malaysian students in PISA.
The first thing that this special PISA committee should examine is whether the MEB objective for Malaysia to make the double quantum jump from the bottom third to the top third of the international education benchmarking by 2021 PISA is a realistic and achievable one, or whether it is too utopian and impossible to achieve and should be scrapped and replaced by another more practical and realistic target.
Look at all the ‘A’s that our students achieve in examinations. How can one say that we are behind the others? Let us not trust those leaning-tower assessments.
Doesn’t Muhyiddin and the Ministry of Education deserve a Nobel Prize for Education?
Who else could have destroyed a nation’s education system so fast?
Can someone recommend to the Nobel Committee to start a Nobel Prize for Education? And propose Muhyidin and MOE as the first recipients. At last, a Malaysian Nobel Prize winner.
Never mind if it is given because we are at the bottom. We are used to it -PISA and all. The important thing is Malaysia Boleh, even if it is from the bottom.
All Malaysians should be awarded the Nobel peace prize cause they are all kwai people
No, not ‘Miracle’. It is a MIRAGE.
Listen, listen, LISTEN: Expecting our education system 2 improve n get better, HO, HO, ho, tan ku-ku or ba-ban tan lor
We may b able 2 spend millions 2 send another Malay space tourist in2 space 4 UmnoB 2 syiok diri n 2 brain wash Malays, we can’t simply spend millions 2 bribe PISA, TIMSS, PIRLS 2 rank us higher
If one day you become ooo liao and somebody important, pray tell how you priortise your ringgit Malaysia ? Why you want the money to be used in your manner ? Cause you want to be standing in the eyes of the superior countires.
M’sia boleh, MIRACLE: M’sia 36, Cambodia 0 in women’s hockey, SEA Games 2013
Having read the reactions in the US Press, at least they are making noise albeit some foolishly so. Here it is dead silence; meaning they will simply ignore it believing it won’t hurt their grip onto the power, come GE14. Hence calling for change is a tall order because they just fear the competition as they had all along tried to re-engineer the very basic rules of education by lowering the standard every year and then pray that the people will keep quiet when the SPM results are announced! You can’t describe this as shameless, it is not in their vocabulary and they don’t understand it! If the difference is some 3-year gap then our graduates are just high school standard especially those who matriculated locally?
M’sian education, fr blue 2 BLACK, darkness
UPM, like a faithful K9, walked d extra mile 2 prevent IDEAS’ Wan Saiful Wan Jan fr speaking 2 Kelas Pencerahan on d National Economic Model
Y so kiasi 1
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/249285
USM mau ?
Our U graduates,at least 50-75% of them cannot speak proper English.Why?Because our educational standards are going to the dogs.Go figure.
It is okay for UK and USA to have low score; smart Asian students can always fill the gap for them. For Malaysia, we are probably waiting for the very “smart ones” from one of those nincompoop countries.
I think we are the ones tat deserve to be called nimcompoops. The other less-developed countries had worse starts than us (e.g. civil wars, poverty, etc) that it is understandable that they would need time to overcome all these.
But us ? We are blessed with so many gifts yet we squander them away.
I have never dared to consider foreigner workers (be it talents or just manual coolies) as lower than us. They just had a bad start but they have made considerable progress from that bad start.
But what about us ? Think again and most importantly ACT!