Malta ranks dismal 40th out of fifty countries in science rankings

Malta's first participation in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) ranked the country fortieth out of fifty surveyed nations whose 9-10 year-olds were assessed in their science skills.

Students in Year 5 primary, with an average age of 9.8 years, in all state, church and independent schools were assessed in TIMSS, which is based on a four-year cycle of assessment.

Malta had an average scale score of 446 - TIMSS's science scale's centrepoint is 500) - with the top four performers being South Korea (587) followed by Singapore (583), Finland (570) and Japan (559).

Male Maltese students performed better than female students, the average scale score for boys being 449 while that for girls was 443. 

The TIMSS Science assessment is composed of three content domains: Life Science, Physical Science and Earth Science and three cognitive domains: Knowing, Applying and Reasoning. 

The average score of Maltese students for knowing (437) is significantly lower than the overall science score (446).  Maltese students did best in the reasoning domain with an average score of 459 which is significantly higher than the overall science score. The third cognitive domain which was assessed was applying; in this domain Maltese students achieved an average score of 449. Overall in Malta boys scored higher than girls in science. 

The TIMSS scores are categorized into four international benchmarks.

While internationally 8% of the students fall below the Low International Benchmark, Malta has 30% of its students in Year 5 who fell in this category.  

Science scorers reported that some students failed to understand the questions written in the English language.  This may have contributed to students answering incorrectly or skipping the question.  Parents reported (in the survey) that about 44% of students spoke the language of the test at home before they started schooling.  The achievement score of those students who spoke English at home before starting school was 478 whilst the score of those who never spoke English at home before starting school was 430. 

The amount of instruction time available for science in Maltese primary schools, according to the TIMSS report, is 39 hours annually. This represents only 4% of the total annual instructional time available. 

This is very low compared to an international average of 85 hours annually.  The time dedicated to science education in Maltese primary schools is the least number of hours dedicated to the teaching of science among all participating countries.

In state schools a group of 20 peripatetic science teachers support science teaching in the primary schools.

In the state sector from Year 4 onwards primary students in Malta were assessed in science by means of a practical assessment done as group work with a few questions to be filled in at the end.  In this assessment competences in science skills such as accurate measurement and observation were assessed more than scientific knowledge.

In the non-state sector a summative science examination is available in some of the schools.  The TIMSS assessment consisted of a written paper in the form of a booklet of about 30 pages subdivided into two sections; maths and science.  Such an assessment format may have not have been familiar to our students.

The National Curriculum Framework document gives Mathematics and Science the same importance and the same time allocation in Primary Schools.  It recommends that 15% of the time in the Primary classroom should be dedicated to Mathematics and 15% to Science.  The document, 'A Vision for Science Education in Malta', published in 2011 was informed by current practices in schools and by the results of the previous TIMSS 2007 when Malta participated with the Form 3 secondary school cohort.