{"id":802893,"date":"2024-12-04T11:59:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T09:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=802893"},"modified":"2024-12-04T12:25:48","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T10:25:48","slug":"south-africa-finishes-stone-last-in-mathematics-and-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/802893\/south-africa-finishes-stone-last-in-mathematics-and-science\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa finishes stone last in Mathematics and Science"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The 2023 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study revealed that South African learners finished stone last, even though they competed against much younger children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is the largest pool of trend data from any international large-scale assessment in education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this latest cycle, TIMSS measured mathematics and science achievement in the fourth and eighth grades in 64 countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TIMSS has been conducted every four years since, providing 28 years of mathematics and science achievement trends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the assessment was on learners in the fourth and eighth grades, South Africa sent students in their fifth and ninth grades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The official reason is that local grade five and nine learners \u201cbetter match curricula and maintain trend measurement\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the reality is that South African learners are so poor that the international exams are much too difficult for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To compensate for our poor learners and education system, South Africa assessed learners who had one more year of education to try to match their global counterparts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

59 countries participated in TIMSS 2023 in the fourth grade. Despite assessing older and more experienced learners, South Africa finished last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most countries\u2019 scores fell within the range of 400 to 600 points. Singapore topped the mathematics scores with 615, followed by Chinese Taipei with 607.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa was last with a score of 362, well below the second-lower country, Kuwait, which scored 382. It was also well below the international average of 503.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country fares even worse in science. It scored only 308, well below the second-last-placed Kuwait at 373. Again, it was far below the average of 494.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In science, most countries\u2019 scores also fell within 400 to 600 points, and Singapore topped the list again with 607.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is important to reiterate that South Africa finished last in both mathematics and science despite local students with one more year of schooling being assessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Average Mathematics Achievement<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Country<\/strong><\/td>Average Scale Score<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Singapore<\/td>615<\/td><\/tr>
Chinese Taipei<\/td>607<\/td><\/tr>
Korea, Rep. of<\/td>594<\/td><\/tr>
Hong Kong SAR<\/td>594<\/td><\/tr>
Japan<\/td>591<\/td><\/tr>
Macao SAR<\/td>582<\/td><\/tr>
Lithuania<\/td>561<\/td><\/tr>
T\u00fcrkiye (5)<\/td>553<\/td><\/tr>
England<\/td>552<\/td><\/tr>
Poland<\/td>546<\/td><\/tr>
Ireland<\/td>546<\/td><\/tr>
Romania<\/td>542<\/td><\/tr>
Netherlands<\/td>537<\/td><\/tr>
Latvia<\/td>534<\/td><\/tr>
Norway (5)<\/td>531<\/td><\/tr>
Czech Republic<\/td>530<\/td><\/tr>
Sweden<\/td>530<\/td><\/tr>
Bulgaria<\/td>530<\/td><\/tr>
Finland<\/td>529<\/td><\/tr>
Australia<\/td>525<\/td><\/tr>
Germany<\/td>524<\/td><\/tr>
Denmark<\/td>524<\/td><\/tr>
Serbia<\/td>523<\/td><\/tr>
Belgium (Flemish)<\/td>521<\/td><\/tr>
Hungary<\/td>520<\/td><\/tr>
Portugal<\/td>517<\/td><\/tr>
United States<\/td>517<\/td><\/tr>
Cyprus<\/td>516<\/td><\/tr>
Slovak Republic<\/td>515<\/td><\/tr>
Slovenia<\/td>514<\/td><\/tr>
Italy<\/td>513<\/td><\/tr>
Armenia<\/td>513<\/td><\/tr>
Albania<\/td>512<\/td><\/tr>
Canada<\/td>504<\/td><\/tr>
Spain<\/td>498<\/td><\/tr>
United Arab Emirates<\/td>498<\/td><\/tr>
Georgia<\/td>498<\/td><\/tr>
Azerbaijan<\/td>494<\/td><\/tr>
New Zealand<\/td>490<\/td><\/tr>
Belgium (French)<\/td>489<\/td><\/tr>
Kazakhstan<\/td>487<\/td><\/tr>
France<\/td>484<\/td><\/tr>
Montenegro<\/td>477<\/td><\/tr>
North Macedonia<\/td>474<\/td><\/tr>
Qatar<\/td>464<\/td><\/tr>
Bahrain<\/td>462<\/td><\/tr>
Kosovo<\/td>451<\/td><\/tr>
Bosnia & Herzegovina<\/td>447<\/td><\/tr>
Chile<\/td>444<\/td><\/tr>
Uzbekistan<\/td>443<\/td><\/tr>
Jordan<\/td>427<\/td><\/tr>
Oman<\/td>421<\/td><\/tr>
Iran, Islamic Rep. of<\/td>420<\/td><\/tr>
Saudi Arabia<\/td>420<\/td><\/tr>
Brazil<\/td>400<\/td><\/tr>
Morocco<\/td>393<\/td><\/tr>
Kuwait<\/td>382<\/td><\/tr>
South Africa (5)<\/td>362<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Average Science Achievement<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Country<\/strong><\/td>Average Scale Score<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Singapore<\/td>607<\/td><\/tr>
Korea, Rep. of<\/td>583<\/td><\/tr>
Chinese Taipei<\/td>573<\/td><\/tr>
T\u00fcrkiye (5)<\/td>570<\/td><\/tr>
England<\/td>556<\/td><\/tr>
Japan<\/td>555<\/td><\/tr>
Poland<\/td>550<\/td><\/tr>
Australia<\/td>550<\/td><\/tr>
Hong Kong SAR<\/td>545<\/td><\/tr>
Finland<\/td>542<\/td><\/tr>
Lithuania<\/td>537<\/td><\/tr>
Macao SAR<\/td>536<\/td><\/tr>
Sweden<\/td>533<\/td><\/tr>
United States<\/td>532<\/td><\/tr>
Ireland<\/td>532<\/td><\/tr>
Norway (5)<\/td>530<\/td><\/tr>
Bulgaria<\/td>530<\/td><\/tr>
Romania<\/td>526<\/td><\/tr>
Czech Republic<\/td>526<\/td><\/tr>
Slovenia<\/td>526<\/td><\/tr>
Latvia<\/td>526<\/td><\/tr>
Hungary<\/td>524<\/td><\/tr>
Denmark<\/td>522<\/td><\/tr>
Canada<\/td>521<\/td><\/tr>
Slovak Republic<\/td>521<\/td><\/tr>
New Zealand<\/td>517<\/td><\/tr>
Netherlands<\/td>517<\/td><\/tr>
Germany<\/td>515<\/td><\/tr>
Portugal<\/td>511<\/td><\/tr>
Italy<\/td>511<\/td><\/tr>
Serbia<\/td>510<\/td><\/tr>
Spain<\/td>504<\/td><\/tr>
United Arab Emirates<\/td>495<\/td><\/tr>
Albania<\/td>491<\/td><\/tr>
Belgium (Flemish)<\/td>488<\/td><\/tr>
France<\/td>488<\/td><\/tr>
Cyprus<\/td>487<\/td><\/tr>
Belgium (French)<\/td>481<\/td><\/tr>
Chile<\/td>479<\/td><\/tr>
Bahrain<\/td>475<\/td><\/tr>
Qatar<\/td>472<\/td><\/tr>
Kazakhstan<\/td>467<\/td><\/tr>
Georgia<\/td>465<\/td><\/tr>
Montenegro<\/td>461<\/td><\/tr>
Armenia<\/td>457<\/td><\/tr>
Bosnia & Herzegovina<\/td>448<\/td><\/tr>
North Macedonia<\/td>439<\/td><\/tr>
Oman<\/td>433<\/td><\/tr>
Iran, Islamic Rep. of<\/td>432<\/td><\/tr>
Saudi Arabia<\/td>428<\/td><\/tr>
Brazil<\/td>425<\/td><\/tr>
Azerbaijan<\/td>422<\/td><\/tr>
Jordan<\/td>418<\/td><\/tr>
Uzbekistan<\/td>412<\/td><\/tr>
Kosovo<\/td>403<\/td><\/tr>
Morocco<\/td>390<\/td><\/tr>
Kuwait<\/td>373<\/td><\/tr>
South Africa (5)<\/td>308<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study revealed that South African learners finished stone last, even though they competed against much younger children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":51632,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[21185,21187,5265,853,21186],"class_list":["post-802893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-2023-trends-in-international-mathematics-and-science-study","tag-mathematics","tag-science","tag-south-africa","tag-trends-in-international-mathematics-and-science-study-timss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802893"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":802905,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802893\/revisions\/802905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}