Queensland bucks the trend of national maths backslide

AUSTRALIA is continuing to slide down international maths and science rankings. But one state emerged as one of the few positives, making solid gains, particularly among Year 4 students, since 2007.

AUSTRALIA is continuing to slide down international maths and science rankings.

The latest global report shows our Year 4 students have plummeted 10 spots to 28th out of 49 countries for mathematics skills.

Results of the 2015 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study reveal Kazakhstan and Portugal have overtaken Australia.

Despite an injection of taxpayer funds to schools, the results show the performance of Australian Year 4 and Year 8 students in maths and science flatlined while countries such as England, the US, Singapore, Hungary and the Czech Republic all improved.

Australian Year 8s fell five places in both maths and ­science since 2011.

But Queensland emerged as one of the few positives, with the state making solid gains, particularly among Year 4 students, since 2007.

TOP CLASS: St Columbus Primary school Year 4s Adam James, Archie Lunn, Lara Furtado, Edwina Fletcher and Zarah King. Picture: Jamie Hanson

Australian Council for Education Research director of education monitoring Sue Thomson said: “Clearly, we have a problem. We are actually slipping backwards.

“Queensland is one of the only good news stories out of the whole thing.”

The results show about 30 per cent of our students are not meeting the Australian proficient standard or demonstrating an ability to apply basic maths and science knowledge in situations.

The number of high achievers is also falling. Less than 10 per cent of students achieved the advanced international benchmark in any of the categories, compared to half of students in Singapore.