SERBIAN CHILDREN AMONG THE BEST IN THE WORLD: Our fourth graders above average in mathematics!

Fourth graders in elementary schools around Serbia, according to the latest international research TIMSS 2015, are above average in mathematics and natural sciences (biology, psychics and geography). This is the best success Serbia has accomplished since it participates in the research. 

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From 57 countries from all continents, Asian countries are in the top of this list (Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan).

On the press conference in the government of Serbia, Anamarija Vicek, state secretary in the Ministry if Education, Science and Technological Development, commented that these results are the indicators of reforms which are done by education authorities, "Politika" reports.

580.000 students around the globe participated in TIMSS, including 4.036 students (and the same number of parents) from 160 schools in Serbia.

Foto-ilustracija: Profimedia/Corbis

- This international project of testing students of fourth and eights grade in mathematics and natural sciences is conducted every four years - said Nikoleta Gutvajn.

In the field of natural sciences in which our children achieved better results - 525 points, we are similar to countries such as Canada, Germany and Denmark, and below us are Austria, North Ireland (which is sixth in mathematics), Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, New Zealand, France, Turkey. First place is Singapore with 590 points.

In mathematics, fourth graders of Serbia achieved 518 points, which puts us in the rank of Sweden, Slovenia and Germany. We are better than Australia, Canada, Italy, Spain, Croatia, New Zealand, France... First place goes to Singapore as well with 618 points, Finland has 535 points, as well as Poland, and the last is again Kuwait with 353. At the presentation of the research it was revealed that our students are afraid of mathematics and that we are at the top of Europe by anxiety when it comes to this subject.

Foto-ilustracija: Profimedia/imageBROKER

- These results puts us in the rang of all surrounding developed countries. That means we have the children and the teachers that could stand side by side with their colleagues from the richer, western countries. This is an indication that Serbia is doing well, but that some things have to be changed in the period from the fifth to the eighth grade - said Vesna Nedeljkovic, Deputy Minister for preschool and primary education.

However, the results show that it is necessary to work on increasing the percentage of the top students in mathematics and science, as well as to increase the percentage of those who learn only the basics of the program, such as in Singapore and Hong Kong, where almost an entire generation learns the basics of mathematics, while knowledge of half of the students is at the advanced level.

Ivana Jaksic gave few more details in the name of national team which conducted the research:

- In comparison to the previous research, our students are better in natural sciences when it comes to biology, while they are better in showing and using data in mathematics. It is clear that there is still room for improvement and to conclude why is there 100 points of difference between students in Singapore and Serbia - said Jaksic.

Foto: Tanjug/Dragan Kujundžić

It was pointed out to the teachers where they should focus more attention on working with students and it lead to better results.

Researchers from TIMSS studied what affects the student's accomplishments and they found out that 85 per cent of that is what student brings into school (from a family or kindergarten) and 15% is affected by school.

As Jaksic explained, students who have passed the preparatory preschool program have better results, who knew how to write, read, calculate before going to the first grade, students of parents with high educational level and higher social and economic status (children have their own rooms, school desks, their own computer)...

Foto: Telegraf

School principals said that school environment with no class interruptions positively affects the student's success, when there are no unexcused absences, no disciplinary problems, where positive attitude is nurtured towards mathematics, where professors engage classes more, make the classes interesting...

With the mentioned results, it could be concluded that children should be directed to study as soon as possible and to develop positive thoughts about mathematics.

In accordance to that, Ministry of education will start piloting new preschool projects, which could be implemented with the 2017/2018 preschool pupils.

(Telegraf.co.uk / Politika)