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A total of
118 schools in the Philippines participated in the Trends
in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)
Advanced 2008 to gauge the performance of fourth-year
high-school students in the country in advanced
mathematics.
This is
the first time the
Philippines
is participating in this assessment, which provides a
state-of-the-art evaluation of student achievement in
advanced mathematics and physics.
Dr. Ester
Ogena, director of the Science Education Institute of the
Department of Science and Technology, said the Philippines
is taking part in TIMSS Advanced 2008 to gather baseline
information and benchmark the performance level of the
Filipino students in mathematics.
“The
results of TIMSS Advanced 2008 would enable us to identify
the specific factors that contribute in the performance of
students in mathematics and serve as baseline data for the
formation of policies and implementing interrelated
programs to address the identified needs,” she said.
The
majority of the schools that participated in TIMSS
Advanced 2008 are science and technology-oriented schools
numbering to 75, while the remaining 43 is comprised by
regional high schools, university rural high schools and
laboratory schools, public science high schools, private
high schools and campuses of the Philippine Science High
School.
Senior
students who participated in the survey, all taking up
advanced mathematics, number to 4,000.
TIMSS-Advanced
assesses school-leaving students with advanced mathematics
and physics. It provides an international comparative
data about the achievement of students enrolled in
advanced courses designed to lead into science-oriented
programs in the university.
The
Philippines last participated in the TIMSS-Repeat 2003,
where a rider study indicated that second-year high-school
students from three science and technology-oriented high
schools showed better performance in mathematics compared
with other Philippine sample students from private and
public high schools, and was even significantly higher
than the international mean, and specifically those of
Australia, England, the United States, Indonesia, Malaysia
and Russia. | 
