An international report on maths and science shows New Zealand primary school pupils lagging behind their counterparts in Kazakhstan, portrayed as a nation of simpletons by comic character Borat.
New Zealand students scored below the international average for maths in the TIMSS Report, and just above the average for science. They trailed Australian pupils by eight or nine rankings in each subject. The survey, Trends in International Maths and Science Study, is conducted at Boston College in the United States every four years and compares maths and science performance of 425,000 Year 5 students in 36 countries.
In mathematics, the NZ children scored just ahead of the Czech Republic and the Ukraine, and another 10 countries, but lagged behind 22 other nations -- including Kazakhstan, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia and Lithuania . The league table was led by the usual suspects in Asia: Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Japan.
The maths achievements of the NZ students rose between 1996 and 2006, with a narrow range of scores in the most recent testing. This meant that fewer pupils were in the worst performing bracket, while the proportion gaining very high scores was similar to 2002.
The mean mathematics score was 492 scale points, compared with Hong Kong's 607. Kazakhstan, the country lampooned by Sacha Baron Cohen's comic creation Borat, took fifth place with a score of 549.
Despite the cinematic stereotype, and the fact that poverty is widespread in Kazakhstan, it is reported to have an emerging middle class keen on rigorous academic education and a belief in the importance of maths and science.
In science, New Zealand took a score of 504, just squeaking in above the average of 500 but 21 places behind Singapore on 587.
"Singapore places a great emphasis on the teaching of science and mathematics," NZ education officials said in an analysis of the results.
"Primary schools have science rooms and sometimes mathematics rooms that serve as focal point."
England (542), the United States (539) and Australia (527) all outstripped New Zealand.
"After previous increases, science achievement returned to the 1994 level," the New Zealand Education Ministry's analysis said.
Eight out of every 10 students indicated that they would like to do more science in school.
"It's important to note that Year 5 students who enjoyed doing maths and science tended to have higher achievement in TIMSS. This reinforces that positive attitudes towards school and learning are an important factor in achieving good results," says ministry spokeswoman Mary Chamberlain.
"While the science findings are of concern and the ministry is addressing these, we need to recognise that in 2006 the PISA study showed that our secondary school students perform with the best in the world."
The ministry was developing advice and support for primary school science teachers, she said.
But the primary teachers' union, NZEI, said the marked drop in student achievement levels in science "comes as no surprise".
NZEI said the results reflected the focus primary schools had put on literacy and numeracy in recent years.
The union president, Frances Nelson, said that in many ways science had fallen victim to "curriculum crowding" and schools needed to prioritise the work they did.
"Primary school classrooms and property entitlements also aren't set up to dedicate space for teaching speciality subjects such as science," she said. Secondary school results showed that students were doing well in science.
