By Alex Crowe
More than a third of Australian 14-year-olds are still failing to achieve national standards in maths, and girls are falling further behind their male peers in both maths and science.
The latest Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), published on Wednesday, shows year 8 maths scores have not budged in almost three decades, and that Victorian students are lagging behind their counterparts in NSW, the ACT and Western Australia in key maths and science disciplines.
John Monash Science School students are bucking the national trend and excelling at maths.Credit: Justin McManus
Curriculum authorities also say they are concerned that the TIMSS data shows boys outperforming girls in both maths and science for the first time at all year levels assessed.
A decline over time in the performance of year 8 girls should serve as a warning, Australian Council for Educational Research researcher Nicole Wernert said.
“It might be just a blip,” she said. “But if it is a warning sign, it’s a chance for us to take stock of the push we’ve had to interest girls in STEM and see if it’s working.”
The gender gap was particularly bad for year 4 maths, where Australia ranked equal-last (with France) among the 58 countries whose primary school students took part in the study last year.
TIMSS is an international study assessing the maths and science skills of year 4 and year 8 students every four years. It is used alongside the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) to report on nationally agreed key performance measures.
Over recent decades, Australian students’ maths performance has prompted science and engineering leaders to warn of a future skills shortage, as students struggling in younger years shun maths at a higher level.
The TIMSS data showed more than 35 per cent of year 8 students nationwide performed below proficiency standards in maths in 2023 – the same proportion performing below standard in 1995 when the study began. This figure was also about the same the last time the study was conducted in 2019.
Victorian students were behind those in NSW and the ACT in year 4 maths and behind those in the ACT and Western Australia in year 8 maths.
Australia’s South Asian and South-East Asian neighbours stood out as high performers in 2023, with Singapore, Taiwan and Korea among the countries scoring significantly better in maths.
Wernert said Australia remained competitive against other English-speaking countries, including the United States and Canada. She said Australia had performed well overall.
“Considering we’ve got this COVID pandemic that intervened between 2019 and 2023, that’s definitely a very positive result,” she said.
Australian year 8s performed worse in maths than those from eight other countries, behind Singapore – which has consistently topped the list – Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, England, Ireland and the Czech Republic.
The latest result in year 4 maths was an improvement on 2019, with the number of countries outperforming Australian students dropping from 22 to 14.
The release of this year’s study comes as the Victorian government steps up its efforts to improve maths teaching in the state’s schools, rolling out new “ready-to-use” lesson plans for the subject.
Education Minister Ben Carroll said the plans would help improve grades in maths and numeracy as well as helping teachers who currently carry the administrative load of writing lesson plans for each subject.
University of Melbourne global educational expert Pasi Sahlberg said failure to improve maths and science results was common among OECD countries.
“Many of the education systems are struggling,” he said.
“It’s partly because of the similar things affecting our young people, more recently the digital media technologies and social media that is distracting young people’s abilities to concentrate.”
Sahlberg said countries like Singapore put a strong emphasis on academic success, and children from many South-East Asian nations were enrolled in tutoring from a young age.
He said attitudes to learning in Australia, as in his home country Finland, had begun to shift the other way.
“Young people see less meaning and value in their school education. It’s often amplified by the fact that more and more young people realise they can be successful in life and make a good living without going to school,” Sahlberg said.
“We should be more worried about that phenomena picking up around the world than improving particular subjects.”
Victorian teachers will have access to the first maths lessons plans from this week, with more resources available from 2025.
The Education Department has identified priority subjects, including English, science and technologies, for development of future lesson plans.
The department is also seeking four maths teachers to appoint as Victoria’s inaugural maths ambassadors, whose role will be to promote best practice in maths education.
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correction
An earlier version of this article referred to researcher Nicole Wernert from ACARA. Wernert is a senior research fellow at the Australian Council for Educational Research.