Use and Impact of TIMSS

Botswana participated in TIMSS in 2003, 2007, 2011, and 2015. Achievement by Botswana’s eighth grade students in the first two TIMSS cycles was not satisfactory, with a mean performance of approximately 364 in mathematics and 354 in science, and with approximately 68 percent of eighth grade students failing to reach the Low International Benchmark. The unsatisfactory performance led to Botswana switching to a ninth grade student cohort in subsequent cycles, which resulted in improved performance. The TIMSS results were disseminated to stakeholders throughout the country, including the Ministry of Education and Skills Development, heads of departments, school heads, regional education directors, parents, teachers, and representatives from other educational institutions. Dissemination teams held regional workshops in an effort to reach as many stakeholders as possible.

TIMSS studies identified certain background variables as negative indicators of achievement in mathematics and science. These variables include but are not limited to the following:

Pedagogical issues, such as availability of resources, teacher effectiveness, and student motivation and aspirations
Curriculum issues, such as proficiency in English, an imbalance in cognitive areas in the curriculum, and urban-rural disparities
Social and environmental context, such as lack of parental involvement in children’s learning, teacher absenteeism, lack of access to preschool, and imbalances in performance by gender (i.e., girls performing significantly higher than boys)
Teaching and learning resources, such as urban-rural disparities in the provision of resources and lack of well-resourced libraries

The recommendations from the TIMSS reports have not been consolidated into interventions by the Ministry. However, a few sporadic interventions have resulted from the TIMSS findings. There has been some restructuring within the MoESD, leaving the Department of Teacher In-Service almost nonexistent. TIMSS released items are sent to schools without any follow-up on their use.

Curriculum Review—In 2006–2007, the Department of Curriculum Development and Evaluation conducted a review of the upper primary (Grades 5 to 7) and junior secondary (Grades 8 to 10) school curricula. In addition to benchmarking with other countries and using the TIMSS mathematics and science frameworks, the poor achievement of Botswana students on TIMSS 2007 and resulting recommendations informed the review. The review emphasized the acquisition of key skills across all subject areas.
Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)—Findings from TIMSS showed that students were not able to apply HOTS, such as critical thinking and problem solving in mathematics or science. The Botswana Examinations Council engaged a consultant from Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) in 2008, to train its staff and teachers on implementing HOTS items that would allow students to develop critical and creative thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.
ETSSP Project²²—The Education and Training Strategic Sector Plan (ETSSP) was initiated in 2015 and is yet to be implemented. It aims to promote equitable, effective, efficient, and quality education and a rationalized education sector by restructuring the MOESD functions. ETSSP came about as a result of declining performance on national examinations and TIMSS and PIRLS studies.
National Assessment Programme²³—The country is in the process of establishing a national assessment program that will define levels of achievement throughout the education system according to national standards. This initiative was introduced after numerous studies (e.g., TIMSS 2003, TIMSS 2007, and TIMSS 2011, PIRLS 2011, SACMEQ 2007 and 2011, Monitoring of Learning Achievement 2001) revealed that the quality of the education system was low despite a high gross enrollment rate. As such, the National Assessment Programme was customized to yield accurate information about the bottlenecks of the education system.
Preprimary Programme²⁴—Although preprimary education is provided by the private sector, the government has stepped up efforts to meet the challenges it presents. A pilot one year reception program was introduced in 115 out of 756 public schools in Botswana in January 2014, and currently serves more than 4,000 children. This initiative was necessitated by the fact that TIMSS and PIRLS results showed that students in Botswana are outperformed by their counterparts in other countries not because they are cognitively inferior, but because they have been exposed to formal learning for fewer years.