Poor literacy and numeracy levels among First Nations students are being blamed for the Northern Territory slipping in national and international education rankings.
The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study – known as TIMSS (TIMS) – released yesterday found more than half of Northern Territory kids are still not meeting the proficient standard for maths.
International testing of Year 4 and Year 8 students show that if the NT was treated as its own nation, its Year 4 children would fall in the bottom third of international rankings while Year 8 students would be in the bottom half.
Sue Thompson from the Australian Council for Educational Research, says the NT results have generally stagnated over the past 20 years, and that rural schools and Indigenous students were the driving factors.
Nationally, Australia has also slipped in the rankings, despite spending the fifth highest amount on education among developed nations. Australian students remain around the middle of the pack in terms of outcomes, but are slipping in the rankings as other poorer nations climb.
It’s clear from the survey that socio-economic status plays a major role – the study showed that if results from the richest students in Australia were used, they would be among the top eight countries in the world, whereas those from poorer families are within the bottom quarter.
(IMAGE: Victor Björkund, Flickr)
