Asian students dominate math, science: Study

Asian students dominate math, science: Study

Reuters, Washington

Singapore students were the top performers in both mathematics and science in a worldwide survey of more than 360,000 fourth- and eighth-graders, Boston College said in a report published on Tuesday.

Indonesian students took part only in the eighth-grade category.

The quadrennial Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) for 2003 also found students from South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong performed very well in math and science, repeating results found in 1995 and 1998.

Indonesian students took the 34th position in math and 36th position from a list of 45 countries.

In mathematics, in both the eighth and fourth grades, Singapore had a significantly higher average achievement rating than the rest of the participating countries. Asian countries or regions took six of the top 10 slots for eighth-grade math.

Singapore's eighth-grade students had an average score of 605 out of 800 points, with the international average of 46 countries at 466. In the same category, Indonesia's score was 411, Japan's was 570, Russia's was 508 and the United States scored 504 for 15th place, the report said. Eighth-grade students are usually about age 13.

For fourth grade, for which students of 25 countries or territories were measured, Singapore's students led the ranking with an average score of 594 against a worldwide 495, followed by Hong Kong with 575.

Japan was third with 565, Russia was ninth with 532 and the United States 12th with 518. Fourth-graders are generally about age 9.

In science, Singapore dominated both age groups, followed by Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong, the survey showed.

More non-Asian countries filled out the eighth-grade top 10 in science than in math, including Estonia, Hungary, the Netherlands, the United States, which placed ninth, Australia and Sweden. Indonesia's score was 420.

England, Latvia and Russia cracked the top 10 in fourth-grade science, it showed. The United States ranked sixth.

The complete rankings are published at the Website www.timss.bc.edu.