In math, Polish 10-year-olds scored an average of 546 points, placing them 10th worldwide out of 58 participating countries, as reported by the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza on Thursday.
According to data from 2023, released in early December 2024, Polish students excelled even more in science, with an average score of 550 points. In Europe, only their peers from the United Kingdom scored higher.
Interestingly, a shift has been observed in Poland's education system. The percentage of boys outperforming girls in math has also increased. In previous studies, the gap was around 8%, but now it stands at 11%.
Despite Polish 10-year-olds achieving better results than in previous studies and recording the lowest percentage of students with the weakest skills, they still lack confidence and belief in their abilities.
Among all the countries surveyed, Polish fourth-graders had the weakest sense of connection to their school.
Unfortunately, a similar feeling is shared by poorly paid teachers in Poland. The job satisfaction of mathematics teachers in Poland ranked second-to-last, at 57th place out of 58 countries.
Even worse, science teachers rated their job satisfaction as the lowest, placing last in the TIMSS study.
Source: TIMSS/GW
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