Saudi students have made remarkable progress in the field of mathematics and science, which was reflected in the results of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2019 (TIMSS 2019) exams. The results were announced on Tuesday by the Saudi Education and Training Evaluation Commission. Sponsored by the Amsterdam-based International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), the event was organized by the commission in partnership with the Ministry of Education, with the participation of over 11 thousand male and female students representing different regions of the Kingdom. The exams, in which 64 countries participated, showed the performance of Saudi students going up, according to international standards, thanks to the increase in the students' scores in mathematics and science compared to the previous years. There are in fact noticeable improvements in all indicators of academic achievement in the Year 2019 compared to the Year 2015, as the average scores of second-grade students, in mathematics increased from 368 points in 2015 to 394 points in 2019, and in science from 396 points in 2015 to 431 points in 2019. The results also showed that the average achievement of fourth-grade students in mathematics increased to 398 points in 2019 compared to 2015 (383 points) and their average achievement in science reached 402 points in 2019 compared to 2015 (390 points). The results revealed the positive impact of students' enrollment in kindergarten and early reading and writing activities, at home, as well as their enrollment in schools with high levels of school discipline, as the three variables are associated with improved performance in mathematics and science, at the Saudi level as well as at the international level. TIMSS study revealed the negative impact of bullying and absence, as the performance of students who are frequently bullied compared to their peers who are not bullied, while the difference between the performance of the fourth-grade students who attended the school most and the most absent was 52 points in Mathematics and 47 points in science. — SG
