the best part about the TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics & Science Study) 2007 report is, everything was kept in the dark without you knowing it as a Malaysian!! another "Malaysia Boleh" spirit to be proud of here right?? we are all used to these sort of "Malaysia Boleh" spirit... politicians are just politicians. sometimes i really wonder if a politician be considered as a nation builder or they are just "building" the nation to be voted back in??
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(an excerpt from Malaysian Insider)
The proud statement of Hishammuddin in December 2004 that Malaysia was placed 10th in Mathematics, scoring ahead of Australia, Britain, United States and New Zealand while in Science, Malaysian students were placed 20th, ahead of countries like Norway and Italy, has all turned to ashes.
TIMSS 2007 was a total reversal, with Malaysia losing out to Australia, England, Scotland and the United States in Mathematics (New Zealand was not in the TIMSS 2007 list for Year 8 students) as well as being overtaken by Norway and Italy in Science!
Malaysia plunged from No. 10 placing in Mathematics in TIMSS 2003 to No. 20 placing in TIMSS 2007.
With the disastrous showing in Mathematics at the eighth grade level, Malaysia not only lost to the five top Asian countries which took the first five places, namely Chinese Taipei (1), South Korea (2), Singapore (3), Hong Kong (4) and Japan (5) but also to Hungary (6), England (7), the Russian Federation (8), the United States (9), Lithuania (10), the Czech Republic (11), Slovenia (12), Armenia (13), Australia (14), Sweden (15), Malta (16), Scotland (17), Serbia (18) and Italy (19).
In the three TIMSS for Mathematics in eighth grade level, Malaysia dropped a hefty 45 score points from 519 points in 1999, 508 in 2003 to 474 in 2007 (500 is the TIMSS mathematics scale average). The Australian national report on TIMSS 2007 noted that Australia's mathematics achievement score of 496 was "not significantly different to the TIMSS scale average" and "significantly higher than the remaining 31 countries, including Italy, Malaysia and Norway".
For science, Malaysia also plunged below the TIMSS scale average of 500, falling to 471 points in 2007, a drop by 39 points compared to 2003 (510). In 1999, Malaysia scored 492 points. Malaysia's ranking in Year 8 science in TIMSS 2007 is No. 21, behind Singapore (1), Chinese Taipei (2), Japan (3). South Korea (4), England (5), Hungary (6), the Czech Republic (7), Slovenia (8), Hong Kong (9), the Russian Federation (10), the United States (11), Lithuania (12), Australia (13), Sweden (14), Scotland (15), Italy (16), Armenia (17), Norway (18), Ukraine (19) and Jordan (20).
What should be quite startling about the science findings of TIMSS 2007 is not the Australian national report observation that Malaysia is one of the countries which "showed a "statistically significant decline" in score points, but the observation by the Dubai national report that Malaysia's TIMSS 2007 science score of 471 is "significantly lower than Dubai", which scored 489, as well as Thailand catching up with Malaysia in having a similar score of 471!
Had Hishammuddin ever submitted a report of Malaysia's dismal showing in the TIMSS 2007 to the Cabinet and did the Cabinet give the Hishammuddin the "green light" to bury the disastrous TIMSS findings from public knowledge?
It must be particularly galling to Hishammuddin that he cannot really claim credit for Malaysia's good results in TIMSS 2003 (as the survey was conducted in 2003 when he had not been appointed Education Minister), but he has to bear full responsibility for the dismal results in TIMSS 2007 as he had already been Education Minister for three years when the survey was conducted in 2007.
Other Links
TIMSS 2003 Report
TIMSS 2007 Report
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