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Only 1% of South African students can solve more complex math problems and explain their reasoning, according to TIMSS 2019 international results in math and science.
This study measures the academic ability of students around the world, comparing their relative performance on standardized tests.
Two groups of students are tested with the fourth and eighth grade tests, respectively, and most countries choose to test their fourth and eighth grade students with these tests.
South Africa, however, is one of the few countries that tests its fifth and ninth grade students on the same tests “to better fit their curricula and keep measuring trends.”
However, despite the fact that South African students were a year older than most of their peers, the country had one of the lowest scores in the world, beating only Pakistan and the Philippines on the 4th grade test and Morocco on the 8th grade test.
However, TIMSS noted that it has reservations about the reliability of the scores for these other countries.
If only countries that have fully reliable scores are counted, South Africa is the worst in the world in terms of students’ math and science skills.
Performance relative to international benchmarks
The TIMSS benchmarking system comprises low, intermediate, high, and advanced international benchmarks, demonstrating different skills.
In the advanced benchmark for the grade 4 test (taken by South African grade 5 students), only 1% achieved the advanced benchmark score, showing the ability to apply knowledge and understanding in a variety of complex situations and explain your reasoning.
Share this 1% score with the world’s worst-scoring countries. The Department of Education said it was satisfied with these results.
“It is gratifying that 1% of math students and 2% of science students have demonstrated skills on the advanced benchmark,” the Department said in a presentation.
The study also showed that only 37% and 28% of fifth graders showed “some basic knowledge” of math and physical science, respectively.
Large portions of the South African test population were excluded from the test because they scored too low to estimate.
“Students were judged to be achieving too low to estimate if their performance on the assessment was no better than what could be achieved simply by guessing the multiple-choice assessment item,” the report says.
The following percentages of South African students scored too low to estimate:
- Fourth Grade Math – 6%
- Grade 4 Science – 28%
- Eighth Grade Math – 26%
- Eighth Grade Science – 17%
The key findings
The Department of Education described its main findings from the TIMSS study.
For the 4th grade international tests, South Africa remains one of the lowest performing countries in both math and science, the department said.
“As a positive result, 16% of math and science students scored higher than 475 points (intermediate benchmark), which means they can apply knowledge to solve problems.”
“Just over a third (37%) of South African students demonstrated that they had acquired basic mathematical knowledge and 28% had acquired basic scientific knowledge,” the department added.
“By way of contrast, this means that 63% of the students had not acquired basic mathematical knowledge and 72% had not acquired basic scientific knowledge.”
In discussing the performance of South African 9th graders on the 8th grade international benchmark, the department noted that averages have improved since 1995, 1999, and 2003, when the students tested were one year younger .
“South Africa’s math and science achievement averages have improved from ‘very low’ to ‘low’,” the department said.
Data from this test showed that 41% and 36% of South African ninth grade students acquired basic math and science skills, respectively.
The charts below show how South African students perform on TIMSS international benchmarks compared to other countries.
Average Achievement in Mathematics – Grade 4
Average Achievement in Mathematics – Grade 8
Average Achievement in Science – Grade 4
Average Achievement in Science – Grade 8
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