We are well behind many other countries in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) benchmarks. It’s a sad reflection of the state of our education system. We are just, well, average in the global class.
Percentage of eighth-grade students who reached the TIMSS advanced international benchmark in mathematics, by country: 2007
Percentage of eighth-grade students who reached the TIMSS advanced international benchmark in science, by country: 2007
What does our Education Minister have to say about this?
This doesn’t mean we should now focus excessively on maths and science to the detriment of the arts subjects. We need to produce students who also have a keen awareness of social realities. Our education system shouldn’t just churn out robots for industry. We need philosophers, artists, and social workers every bit as much as we need engineers, scientists, doctors and technicians.
Our education system must produce well-rounded individuals in various disciplines who are trained to think creatively, critically, analytically. Unfortunately, right now, we aren’t even able to get the basics right.
Loading ...
He’ll probably say “Who needs this TIMMS thing anyway? We’re OK, in line with the international norms. See, we’re better than Jordan, Indonesia, Iran and most other Islamic countries”.
He will come out with a Malaysian version of the survey, do ranking of stars and not rating. No need competition.
Our result sucks. Just average.
Taiwan clearly holds on the pole position but their universities degree is not recognized by Malaysian government. Strange ! Oh no, its because they use mandarin and their answer might be wrong when translated into Bahasa.
The country prosperous main due to they have brainy peoples manage the country and brainy peoples to execute whatever have been planned.
In order to have this brainy peoples we must have excellent education systems.
The problems of our education are :
1. Education policy always change to suit, sometimes political agenda. Until today we still unable to decide whether to teach math and science in English or ethnic language.Why don’t we be bold and leave the policy alone and try to give our children a chance to excel and prove themselves. Those who against this policy, please ask yourselves how many of you have already sent you children to study in oversea and plan to send them to oversea and why? Don’t be too selfish.
2. Teacher training quality has been down graded. KPLI program in order to minimize the unemployed graduate, government created this ad hoc program to ease the problems.KPLI teacher only need to train in a short duration they were posted to various school to start teaching whereas the Maktab Penguruan trianee teacher need to train much longer duration.
3. When the government decided to change the policy of teaching Math and Science, we were actually not prepare. A lot of teachers were not fond of English. Some teachers even direct translate terms from Malay for example “tolak” translated as “Push”. This is ridiculous but this is the reality.
4. The difficulties level of our syllabus and examination paper especially in math are actually low compare to the country like Singapore or Chinese Taipei. Some may argued about why should we raise our standard, this will burden our children. But we must face the reality globalization is actually burdening us look at the fuel price.We actually need to train our children well in order to compete in the world arena and put their brain to test. Let the children train to run 60 km but compete in 42km.
There are inexhaustible list of problems in our education system. The authorities always give excuses and deny whatever weaknesses we have. These have make the country and us suffered. Look at country like Korea where are they 20 years ago, but now they are well ahead of us. Look at their education systems. The chart reveal one fact that is those well developed countries have excellent education systems.One day we might have to compare ourselves with Botswana, Algeria or Ghana. Ask yourselves you want to send your children to study in Botswana or Ghana?
Please contemplate on this!
guess there are more than 2 reasons why she is lagging behind.
doubt M’sia can get out of it. most of our problems are institutionalised. it would take a herculean effort to change and to learn how to be mean and lean & to compete. doubt M’sian have the stomach for it. possible but unlikely. guess most M’sians will be like the proverbial frog in the slowly boiling water. it will get cooked eventually.
i shouldn’t be surprised at these results but i am. from what i can see, the national maths and science syllabus is really extensive and if i may say so, extremely challenging compared to what i had to face 30 some years ago.
frankly, if we look at the syllabus our kids should be stuffed to bursting with knowledge. why aren’t they performing well?
some possible reasons:
1. i have to agree that the problem lies with the quality of teaching and the commitment of the teachers.
2. the common solution is pack the students off to tutors who largely focus on exam preparation.
3. the syllabus may be extensive and comprehensive but the way it’s formatted its uninspiring and unengaging.
4. boring, boring, boring textbooks – especially at the primary level.
i haven’t examined the questionnaires but i would imagine that timss tests not just facts but understanding and problem solving. as they are now, the national syllabus and level of pedagogy are incapable of preparing our kids to think analytically.
of course, the education system as it stands, churns out malaysians who are incapable of independent thought. so the bn government finds itself at an impasse: they are creating a docile, unquestioning population but the country is increasingly losing its competitiveness because its workers lack critical thinking skills.
would they want to reverse the latter and further risk their hold on political power?
How come when Malaysia do better than Indonesia in maths and science in TIMMS but Universiti Malaya is ranked lower than Indonesia?
Funny lah!
Top six countries in maths are using mother tongue while top three countries in science are also using mother tongue.
Facts speak the truth that teaching maths and science in mother tongue shall be encouraged.
Our BN elite put their children in international / private schools. Perfectly understandable.
After all, the tens of thousands of unemployed local graduates speak volume of the quality of our local education system.
Malaysia do better than Indonesia? it is true 20 years ago!
I think for the Malaysian portion please separate that by the race. You will notice that some race is above the median and suspectingly it’s the usual news that the other is one factor contributing to to the country being a laggard …. there is nothing new lar …so long as this country is not governt as Malaysian Malaysia …nothing is new …it’s all PREDICTABLE
It is certainly in line with international standards!
Education Minister’s response:
“We are still better than Iran!”