The Agency for Pre-Primary, Primary and Secondary Education will announce tomorrow, December 8, 2020 at 10 a.m. on the BHT1 program, the report and recommendations of the international survey TIMSS 2019 for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) is an international assessment of student achievement in mathematics and science providing data on student achievement and contextual factors affecting them.
The assessment has been administered every four years since 1995, evaluating primary school students in fourth and eighth grade in more than 60 countries.
BiH has participated in the TIMSS survey twice, unfortunately not in continuity. The first time, in 2007, the results showed that the achievements of BiH students are far below the international average, i.e. only 10% of surveyed students showed the ability to apply mathematical skills in solving specific problems, and 14% of students in science.
The second time TIMSS survey was administered in BiH was in the spring of 2019 on a sample of ca 6,000 fourth-graders in 178 primary schools across the country.
TIMSS, along with PISA and PIRLS, is one of the three largest international surveys in education conducted in BiH by the Agency for Pre-Primary, Primary and Secondary Education, in cooperation with the relevant ministries of education and international partners.
The PISA 2018 survey also indicated a low level of student achievement and low functional literacy of students in BiH. The recommendations of this research have been distributed to all levels of education authorities in the country, and some have taken tangible steps towards the curricular reforms and improving the quality of education. Unfortunately, activities have been slowed down or stopped altogether due to the pandemic.
“The results of PISA 2018 confirmed the need for urgent revision of existing curricula by taking in the learning outcomes, what the Agency has emphasized as a necessity in previous time, as well as the need for applying the new approaches of teaching and evaluation. We were convinced of the accuracy of these recommendations during the first months of the pandemic and, unfortunately, we are being convinced anew on a daily basis. “- said Maja Stojkić, director of the Agency for Pre-primary, Primary and Secondary Education.
The pandemic and transition to new forms of teaching have put to test not only the teaching methods and technological assumptions, but also the possession of key competencies and functional knowledge with teachers and students. It is clear that it is high time to take necessary measures to make education in BiH better and more relevant.
The results of the TIMSS 2019 survey will be a new opportunity for the competent education authorities in BiH to take steps towards immediately improving the quality of education.