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Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Borat's Maths are Better Balls'
Apparently the TIMSS international league tables, released today, show that pupils in Kazakhstan are better at Maths than in Balls' Britain. Make of that what you will.
No they are not. England's result is actually quite good but Scotland needs to pull its collective sporran up. There was an article in Stern the other week lamenting Germany's poor performance.
Kazakhstan has plenty of oil and gas, and a reasonable government that has just put taxes DOWN. They take education seriously. I recently met a Kazakh student at a British university reading politics and economics, who at the time was spending a relaxing evening at an advanced Spanish class. All paid for by his government. Might be a country to keep an eye on.
What a spectacular own goal. Look at the tables for improvement between the years 1995 and 2007. At grade four, you'll never guess who's number one. Makes you wonder what changed in that country between those years that might have been responsible for the improvement.
But all the reports suggest that Britain has improved and is doing well - surely you are not talking down the achievements of children, parents and teachers just in the hope of making a point, Iain?
Looks to me like England has one of the better scores worldwide; but don't let that get in the way of a bit of biased, xenophobic, jingoistic, point-scoring, will you?
This post has generated a troll fest and a half. Or is that 0.5?
I have 2 kids who have endured the nonsense that passes for state education these days. I think if you bother to look closely or do some research, you'll find that in our f*&ked up world, maths in schools is more akin to what used to be classified as arithmetic. Not exactly a sound basis for rocket science...
Colin - it's Iain who's been trolling. England was in 25th place in Maths at 14 in 1995. Now we are in 7th.
And you are wrong, the 'Maths' in the TIMSS report covers far more than just arithmetic. Try reading the report, rather than Dale's snipes.
We are now ahead of Germany and the Czech Republic on Maths and Science at both ages (10 and 14).
So, how do the patriotic Tories mark such an improvement? By looking for a headline to belittle it. Well done, Iain and the dittoheads, you're really showing that you support Education. And I bet that it gets not positive coverage in the tabloid press either.
I defy you and anyone else to take an A Level / Scottish Higher math paper from 1981 with one from 2007 and tell me they're comparable in terms of the intellect and the practical application of learned subject matter required to achieve comparable results. The same goes for pretty much every other serious subject.
To try to pretend otherwise is about as credible as brown's claim that The UK is better placed than any other country to weather the global downturm / brown bust.
True, older A level papers were a bit woeful when it came to practical application.
I'd love to compare both papers (and marking schemes), and see how I do. I got an A in my maths A level in 1992, but I reckon I'd struggle now. Do you have a link to old papers and marking schemes by chance?
Of course, 10 year olds and 14 year olds do not take A levels, and it was their Maths performance and standards that the TIMSS measures.
13 comments:
This is nothing new Iain. I think you'll find that educational standards are higher in Germany and the Czech Republic too.
This story doesn't add up.
Iain.
Look at the data:
http://nces.ed.gov/timss/results07_math95.asp
England looks quite good.
No they are not. England's result is actually quite good but Scotland needs to pull its collective sporran up. There was an article in Stern the other week lamenting Germany's poor performance.
Kazakhstan has plenty of oil and gas, and a reasonable government that has just put taxes DOWN. They take education seriously. I recently met a Kazakh student at a British university reading politics and economics, who at the time was spending a relaxing evening at an advanced Spanish class. All paid for by his government. Might be a country to keep an eye on.
What a spectacular own goal. Look at the tables for improvement between the years 1995 and 2007. At grade four, you'll never guess who's number one. Makes you wonder what changed in that country between those years that might have been responsible for the improvement.
But all the reports suggest that Britain has improved and is doing well - surely you are not talking down the achievements of children, parents and teachers just in the hope of making a point, Iain?
utterly pathetic - but only to be expected
Looks to me like England has one of the better scores worldwide; but don't let that get in the way of a bit of biased, xenophobic, jingoistic, point-scoring, will you?
Wow!
This post has generated a troll fest and a half. Or is that 0.5?
I have 2 kids who have endured the nonsense that passes for state education these days. I think if you bother to look closely or do some research, you'll find that in our f*&ked up world, maths in schools is more akin to what used to be classified as arithmetic. Not exactly a sound basis for rocket science...
Colin - it's Iain who's been trolling. England was in 25th place in Maths at 14 in 1995. Now we are in 7th.
And you are wrong, the 'Maths' in the TIMSS report covers far more than just arithmetic. Try reading the report, rather than Dale's snipes.
We are now ahead of Germany and the Czech Republic on Maths and Science at both ages (10 and 14).
So, how do the patriotic Tories mark such an improvement? By looking for a headline to belittle it. Well done, Iain and the dittoheads, you're really showing that you support Education. And I bet that it gets not positive coverage in the tabloid press either.
Danivon @ 10:51
I defy you and anyone else to take an A Level / Scottish Higher math paper from 1981 with one from 2007 and tell me they're comparable in terms of the intellect and the practical application of learned subject matter required to achieve comparable results. The same goes for pretty much every other serious subject.
To try to pretend otherwise is about as credible as brown's claim that The UK is better placed than any other country to weather the global downturm / brown bust.
True, older A level papers were a bit woeful when it came to practical application.
I'd love to compare both papers (and marking schemes), and see how I do. I got an A in my maths A level in 1992, but I reckon I'd struggle now. Do you have a link to old papers and marking schemes by chance?
Of course, 10 year olds and 14 year olds do not take A levels, and it was their Maths performance and standards that the TIMSS measures.
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