Call on Musa to release the details of how  Malay, Chinese, Indian, Iban and Kadazan students score in mathematics and science  in  TIMSS 99

(Batu Pahat, Monday): In 1996 and 1997, I had pressured the Cabinet and the then Education Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, why Malaysia had not taken part in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) – the largest, most comprehensive, reliable and important international study of educational outcomes ever undertaken in the world involving 45 countries, more than 15,000 participating schools and more than half a million students. 

I said this was a grave omission and oversight for Malaysia which wanted to build a world-class educational system and become an international centre for educational excellence – as it reflected poorly on Malaysia’s educational system. 

TIMSS was not just a “horse race” among nations to judge the relative ranking of student scores among the participating countries, but even more important, a major source of information for discussion of the quality of education around the world. 

I even wrote to the Dutch-based International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IAE) and the International Association of Educational Progress (IAEP) which conducted the three international surveys on science and mathematics achievements on cross-national attainments of different education systems – the first one in 1964, the second in the 1980s and the third in 1995 - to inquire how a country could take part in its international surveys.  I received a very prompt reply from the IEA Co-ordinator for Professional Studies, Dr. Barbara Mala-Minkiewicz who said that a country could participate in IEA surveys even if it is not an IEA member. 

I conveyed the IEA reply to Najib, urging that Malaysia should take part in such future studies. Najib’s response was positive and I am glad that Malaysia has taken part in the TIMSS-R (Third International Mathematics and Science Study – Repeat) 1999,  in which 180,000 students  in Grade 8 (Form II) from 38 countries participated. 

The results of TIMSS-R were released in November 2000. Singapore emerged first in mathematics and second in science, while Malaysia  was placed 16^th in mathematics and 22^nd position in science out of 38 countries. 

The rankings of countries in TIMSS 1999 are as follows:   

The Singapore Education Ministry has given the following  “key findings” relating to Singapore students who participated in TIMSS 1999 immediately after the release of the results in November 2000: 

• Singapore is first in mathematics and second in science for TIMSS 1999. 

• Most Singapore students are in the international top half – 93% and 80% of Singapore students are in the international top half for mathematics and science respectively. 

• 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. 

• There were sufficient data to analyse the performance of Chinese and Malay students in Singapore. 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. 

• Singapore’s Secondary Two students have consistently performed among the top in mathematics and science in both TIMSS 1995 and TIMSS 1999. 

The Malaysian Education Ministry lags in accountability, transparency and democracy in failing to report to Parliament and the nation the results of Malaysian students participating in TIMSS 1999, and the secrecy for the past 22 months on the TIMSS results should end. 

DAP calls on the Education Minister, Tan Sri Musa Mohamad to release the details of key findings concerning Malaysian students  from TIMSS 1999 and in particular, to report as to  how  Malay, Chinese, Indian, Iban and Kadazan students score in mathematics and science  in  TIMSS 1999.

(12/8/2002)