Hold your hats, but Britain is doing rather well in something – or at least England is. Our children are achieving more at maths than in any country outside South or East Asia. According to the latest Trends in International Maths and Science Study, conducted by the Dutch-based International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), English 13 to 14-year-olds come out with an average score of 525, sixth behind Singapore (605), Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) (602), Korea (596), Japan (595) and Hong Kong (575).
To put that into context, a score of 550 indicates that students ‘can apply their conceptual understanding in a variety of relatively complex situations’, while a score of 625 means students can ‘extend understanding beyond working with integers alone to solve a variety of problems in novel contexts’. As for English 9–10-year-olds, they came ninth, behind Macao, Lithuania and Turkey as well as the above countries.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in