By American Renaissance | Created at 2024-12-05 17:40:50 | Updated at 2024-12-22 21:07:33
2 weeks ago
An international standardised benchmarking survey conducted in 2023 revealed that South African Grade 5 school students ranked last out of 59 countries in mathematics and science.
This is an abysmal performance, considering the Grade 5 pupils competed at a fourth-grade level. South Africa was one of three countries that sent Grade 5 pupils to participate in the study.
This is according to the 2023 Trends in International Maths and Science Study (TIMSS) results, which were released on Wednesday, 4 December 2024.
The study tests 10-year-olds — around Grade 4 — and 14-year-olds — around Grade 8 — in mathematics and science once every four years.
Altogether, 12,016 schools and 359,098 pupils were assessed in the Grade 4 tests, while 8,786 schools and 297,262 pupils participated in the Grade 8 assessments.
South African Grade 5s achieved a score of 362 points in the fourth-grade mathematics assessment and 308 points in the science assessment, placing last in both.
It also sent Grade 9s to participate in the eighth-grade studies. Despite a slight improvement over their performance in the previous study, South African students placed 39th out of 44 participating countries.
These students achieved a score of 397 in the eighth-grade mathematics assessment.
South Africa’s Grade 9 pupils performed worse in the science assessment, with a score of 362 and placing 42nd out of 44.
The TIMSS 2023 results show that pupils from countries like Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong excelled in mathematics and science at both the fourth- and eighth-grade levels.
The other countries that sent Grade 5 pupils for the fourth-grade assessment were Turkey and Norway, both of which scored significantly higher than South Africa.
Other than South Africa, only Norway sent Grade 9 students to participate in the eighth-grade assessments.
For reference, Norwegian students generally enter lower secondary school, or ungdomsskole, at age 13, beginning with Grade 8. This means most students have reached or are close to reaching the age of 14 by Grade 9.
Norway confirmed this was the reason its grade 9 students participated in the study.
“Norway assessed students in the fifth and ninth year of schooling so students would be compared to students of similar age in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden,” the report stated.
“South Africa assessed students in their fifth and ninth years of schooling to better match curricula and maintain trend measurement. Türkiye also chose to assess students in the fifth grade.”
According to South Africa’s submission for the TIMSS 2023 Encylopedia, another reason the country is sending older students to participate in the assessments could be language.
“In South Africa, learners in the Foundation phase (Grades R to 3) are taught in their home language,” it says.
“However, when learners start the Intermediate phase (Grade 4), they are taught in either English or Afrikaans.”
“From this point on, most learners are taught in English while they speak their indigenous African language at home,” it adds.
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