DUBAI // Ten-year-old pupils are lagging a long way behind their peers in other countries in maths and science, a benchmark test has shown.
And although the performance improves among 14-year-olds, it still falls short of the international average.
The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) provides a standard against which education systems can judge their performance. In this case, 10-year-old pupils from three dozen countries took the Grade 4 exam and 14-year-old pupils from four dozen countries sat the Grade 8 exam.
The TIMSS tests assign scores along a scale, with 500 set as the average. Dubai pupils scored 444 in maths at Grade 4 and 460 in science. Eighth-graders’ scores of 461 for maths and 489 in science were closer to the international median. Pupils from both private and state schools in Dubai sat the tests.
“Obviously the UAE is not doing very well,” said Dr Mark Schneider, the vice president of new educational initiatives at the American Institutes for Research in Washington, who described the country’s numbers as “discouraging”.
TIMSS groups pupils into four achievement levels: advanced, high, intermediate and low. At the Grade 4 level in maths, only two per cent of Dubai pupils performed at the advanced level, which is three points under the international median. By contrast 41 per cent of pupils in Singapore and 40 per cent of pupils in Hong Kong reached the advanced level.
Perhaps more troubling is that almost a third of Grade 4 pupils tested in Dubai lacked a basic understanding of maths: only 69 per cent scored above the “low” benchmark, which is supposed to indicate when pupils start displaying an understanding of adding and subtracting with whole numbers, familiarity with basic geometry and the ability to read simple graphs and tables.
Grade 4 science scores painted a similar picture. While 93 per cent of pupils who took the exams reached the “low” benchmark internationally, only 72 per cent did so in Dubai, suggesting a lack of basic knowledge of human health and the behavioural and physical characteristics of animals, and an inability to recognise the properties of matter and demonstrate a simple understanding of forces.
Only four per cent performed at the advanced level, three points under the international median.
Dubai “is actually not doing well as compared to a lot of countries that are really low-performing”, Dr Schneider said.
“There are a lot of very low-performing countries in TIMSS. I would think that you would want to benchmark against countries that you want to be compared to.”
Grade 8 pupils fared better than their younger counterparts. In Dubai, six per cent reached the advanced benchmark in science, three points above the international median; and 82 per cent scored above the low benchmark, four points above the international median.
In maths, three per cent scored above the advanced benchmark, one point above the international median; and 74 per cent reached the low benchmark, one point below the international median.