MOE Formulates Targeted Approach To Address Students’ Weakness In Mathematics

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 (Bernama) -- The Ministry of Education (MOE) is formulating a targeted approach through the Mathematics Misconceptions Module and the coordination of teachers’ expertise to address weaknesses in students’ mastery of the subject.

Deputy Director-General of Education (Policy and Curriculum Sector) Dr Rusmini Ku Ahmad said the findings of the 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) identified students’ main weakness in Mathematics as not their ability to answer questions directly, but their understanding of basic concepts and reasoning skills.

She said although Malaysian students performed well in the new computational problem-solving domain, they still faced difficulties explaining the logical reasoning behind their Mathematics answers.

“Our students are capable of carrying out coding and modelling tasks online, but there is a mismatch with their Mathematics proficiency, particularly when it comes to reasoning questions.

“To address misconceptions from the early stages through to secondary school, MOE has developed a specific module and incorporated the Mathematics Education Transformation Plan into the Malaysia Education Blueprint (RPM) 2026-2035,” she said during Bernama TV’s Ruang Bicara programme titled “PISA 2025: Pencapaian Malaysia, Cabaran dan Hala Tuju” tonight.

Rusmini said the plan also included teacher retraining, strengthening school leadership and providing advisory services by a group of experts to improve the teaching of Mathematics concepts.

On teaching expertise, she said the ministry was examining school-level data to address option mismatches, including cases where Mathematics teachers were assigned to teach other subjects.

Meanwhile, she said PISA findings involving 157 schools showed that the variation in academic performance between schools in Malaysia was only 17 per cent, lower than the average for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries.

“This finding shows that schools located near students’ homes also have the potential to become high-performing schools if they receive strong support from school management, teachers and parents,” she said.

The 2025 PISA results released by the OECD on Tuesday also showed that Malaysian students had a positive attitude towards learning, but their Mathematics performance declined compared with 2022, while performance in reading and Science remained stable.

-- BERNAMA