Thabo Mohlala
The Western Cape scored better in the international TIMSS 2019 test than the South African average by 52 points for mathematics and 69 points for science, according to the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC).
TIMSS is project of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) headquartered in Amsterdam. The IEA, with the International Study Centre, based at Boston College, released the international results of the study early this month 2020.
South Africa has been ranked among the lowest performing countries since it started taking part in the tests. TIMSS tests are designed to assess learners’ achievement in mathematics and science at the lower band of various global education systems. They are authoritative and reliable measure that participating countries use to monitor and evaluate their learners’ achievement and the health of their education systems.
The HSRC has released the results of the Western Cape in the report titled: ‘TIMSS 2019: Highlights of Western Cape Grade 9 Results in Mathematics and Science’, authored by the organisation’s highly respected and senior researchers. They include: Vijay Reddy, Andrea Juan, Lolita Winnaar, Fabian Arends, Jaqueline Harvey, Sylvia Hannan and Ncamisile Zulu.
Forty-six countries and entities participated at the Grade 8 or 9 level in TIMSS 2019. The top five ranked countries were from East Asia: Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Republic of Korea, Japan and Hong Kong SAR. The five lowest performing countries were Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Morocco, countries from Africa and the Middle East. The Western Cape mathematics and science achievement ranks in the lower third of TIMSS participating countries. Its achievement is similar to Chile, Qatar, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
The report said the Western Cape achieved an average of 441 TIMSS points in mathematics and 439 TIMSS points for science. The TIMSS achievement scores can be translated to describe mathematical and science abilities. Two-thirds of mathematics learners and 60% of science learners demonstrated that they had acquired basic mathematics and science knowledge respectively.
According to the report, the outcomes of TIMSS tests are significant for the Western Cape as it is one of the two most economically affluent provinces in the country. Therefore, its economy demands high-skilled tertiary education graduates, especially in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) subjects. In addition, it is also a province of socio-economic contrasts. Mathematics and science achievement at Grade 9 will predict the quantity and quality of successful matriculants, and the potential pool who can then go on to study technical subjects at the tertiary level, said the report.
The report noted that there are some very talented and globally competitive learners in the Western Cape and 3% of mathematics learners and 6% of science learners (compared to an international average of 7%) reached the highest ability level (called the “advanced” benchmark). This means that that they could use application and reasoning skills in a variety of mathematics and science problems.
One third of mathematics and science learners, noted the report, reached the international intermediate benchmark demonstrating that learners ‘have and can apply knowledge in a variety of situations’. This represents the pool of learners who could proceed successfully to Grade 12 and subsequently enrol for tertiary level technical subjects.
It further said that despite the poor performance of the Western Cape achievement scores in earlier TIMSS cycles, “we can say that from 2011 to 2019 Western Cape mathematics achievement scores significantly increased from 408 to 441. This represents an increase of 33 TIMSS points and in science from 413 to 439, an increase of 26 TIMSS points”.
The report also highlighted the fact that the 2019 performance of learners in the Western Cape was unequal and socially graded. On the one hand, it said, achievement gaps were found to be linked to socio-economic backgrounds, spatial location and attending a fee-paying or no-fee schools.
This confirms, it added, the well-known narrative that advantage begets advantage and resource disadvantages in the home also impact school learning outcomes. On the other hand, added the report, the biggest achievement increases were from the lowest performing learners, contributing to decrease the performance gap.
The achievement gap (difference in achievement scores between learners in fee-paying and no-fee schools) was 70 points for mathematics and a higher 96 points for science. On average, the report highlighted, close to half the mathematics learners and 40% science learners in no-fee schools, and three-quarters of learners in fee-paying schools demonstrated that they had acquired basic mathematical and science knowledge.
According to the report, the international evidence on the relationship between gender and achievement is mixed, not only across countries but also within countries. In Western Cape, mathematics and science achievement scores were higher for boys than for girls, even though this difference is not statistically significant.
However, there are significant gender differences in the content domains of Number, Geometry, Physics and Earth Sciences where boys significantly outscore girls. Boys also achieve significantly higher scores in items requiring the cognitive skills of applying and reasoning said the report.
Learners performed better in items that required them to select a response (multiple-choice question) than in items where they had to write a response. Learners had more difficulty writing descriptions or explanations. In order to encourage writing, the HSRC recommends that the national reading strategy expanded to a ‘Reading and Writing Strategy’.
Over and above collecting achievement data, the report said the test also collected data about the home, school and classroom conditions and environments in order to understand the context in which learners live and learn. It also revealed that learners who speak the language of the test at home will have better linguistic access to the TIMSS assessment and be able to respond more successfully. While, overall 65% of Grade 9 learners spoke the language of the test at home, only 37% of learners in no-fee schools did, in comparison to 80% of learners in fee paying schools.
The report also noted that an issue of concern in the Western Cape province is school climate. High numbers of educators and learners feel unsafe in school. “The school climate is reflective of the climate of the community in which the school is based,” the report said, adding a healthy school climate requires the leadership and support of the school management and the surrounding community.
Learners in schools with a healthier school climate (with emphasis on academic success, fewer disciplinary problems and incidences of bullying, safe and orderly schools) have higher achievements, it noted.
