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TIMSS results assessed outdated curricula - Min. Al-Essa

Education Minister Dr. Bader Al-Essa in a press conference
Education Minister Dr. Bader Al-Essa in a press conference
KUWAIT, Dec 1 (KUNA) -- Latest results concerning Kuwait by Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) came due to assessing outdated curricula rather than current ones, said Education Minister Dr. Bader Al-Essa on Thursday.
Results of the study are by no means an undermining of previous administrations, Al-Essa stressed in a press conference in response to reactions to the recently published study.
TIMSS is a series of international assessments of the mathematics and science knowledge of students around the world. The participating students come from a diverse set of educational systems.
The ministry will conduct an analytical study to TIMSS's results in order to determine reasons behind it, said Al-Essa, also Minister of Higher Education.
Kuwait came in 48th place in mathematics and 47th in science out of 50 participating countries.
TIMSS was first performed in 1995 as the largest international student assessment study of its time and evaluated students in five grades. In the second cycle (1999) only eighth-grade students were tested. In the next cycles (2003, 2007 and 2011) both 4th and 8th grade students were assessed.
The sixth cycle was conducted in 2015, the results came in 2016 and the data set will be published in February 2017. (end) mrf.hb