Taking the fear out of numb3rs

MANILA, Philippines - Ask any grade school student what his or her most dreaded subject in school is, and chances are the answer will be Mathematics. Hardly surprising, if one reviews how the Philippines fared in this subject in the past Trends in International Math and Science Study (TIMSS), conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA): 23rd among 25 participating countries in 2003, garnering an average of 358 versus the international average of 495 in Grade 4 Math; 3rd to the last out of 42 countries in 1999, and 39th out of 42 in the 1995 results. Meanwhile, Singapore has consistently topped the Mathematics tests in the 1995, 1999 and 2003 runs of the same worldwide research.

What is interesting to examine are the contributing factors to the sustained academic excellence of Singapore’s grade school students in Mathematics. One key reason is the availability of high-quality curriculum materials on Math, or what has come to be more popularly known as “Singapore Math”.

But while it’s easy to claim that a particular material is based on Singapore Math principles, it makes a world of difference to actually know and use one that is true to its name. Cognizant of this fact, Rex Book Store, the country’s leading publisher of quality textbooks, has forged a partnership with Shing Lee Publishers, which paves the way for its popular Singapore Math textbook series to be available in the Philippines. Shing Lee Publishers, with its 75 years of expertise in publishing and book trade, is the leading educational materials provider in Singapore and is accredited by Singapore’s Ministry of Education.

Singapore Math is an approach to teaching the subject using textbooks and syllabus from the national curriculum of Singapore.

“We at Rex Book Store are very happy to announce that Shing Lee’s New Syllabus Primary Mathematics (Singapore Math) textbooks are now available in the Philippines. We believe that this partnership is not only aligned to our objective of helping address the needs of our partner schools in their pursuit of educational excellence, but is also consistent with our desire to increase the Filipino youth’s competency in Mathematics,” said Don Timothy Buhain, Chief Operating Officer of Rex Book Store.