Maths and science skills declining in Flemish schools
The four-yearly international study of 10-year-olds shows that an increasing number in Flanders do not know the basics
‘We are slipping’
“I’m not going to minimise these terrible results with a few bright spots that are also in the study,” commented Ben Weyts, Flemish minister for education. “We have to face it and admit that we are slipping.”
Every four years the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (Timss) looks at how well 10-year-olds around the world master mathematics and science. The latest round covers 58 countries, or regions such as Flanders that have a separate education policy.
Advanced pupils stable
In Flanders the tests involved 4,665 pupils in 147 schools. The research was carried out during 2019, so the results are not affected by the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
In both mathematics and in science, Flemish pupils are performing significantly worse than they were four years ago. While the number of pupils with advanced maths skills appears to be relatively stable, those hitting the high, medium and low benchmarks in the study are all slipping.
This means that the better pupils are not being challenged to improve, and a growing number are not even mastering the basics of maths.
The pattern is the same in science, with the advanced and high levels relatively stable, but the medium and low levels in decline. The researchers say that it is particularly worrying that the number of pupils who have not mastered the basics of science has risen significantly, from 4% to 8%.
Out-classed
As a result of these trends, Flanders has slipped from 11th to 17th place in the international ranking for mathematics, and from 31st to 35th place in science. Of the participating European countries, only France and Malta perform worse than Flanders for science.
Asian countries – Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan – top both lists. For mathematics, the best performing European nations or regions are Northern Ireland, England, Ireland, Latvia and Norway, while in science Finland, Latvia, Norway and Lithuania top the European list.
As well as testing the kids, the researchers asked about their social backgrounds and the educational habits that had shaped them. From this it appears that a shortfall in basic literacy acquired during kindergarten and a lack of pre-school learning activity at home may be to blame for their poor performance as 10-year-olds.
For Weyts, however, the main problem is the children who do not speak Dutch at home: “We urgently need to raise the bar, with language screening in kindergarten, with region-wide tests and with stricter attainment targets.”
The researchers note that the proportion of pupils who always or almost always speak Dutch at home has changed little over the past three rounds of the study.
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