Math struggles emerging earlier: Grade 9 scores and confidence slide

Results of 2025 national academic achievement assessment for 9th and 11th graders

14.9% of 9th graders scored at the lowest math level, up 2.2 percentage points

Math confidence and interest also fell

COVID-19 learning loss cited as likely factor

Warning signs are emerging in math learning among ninth graders. Middle school students are seen arriving at school. [Herald Business DB]

By Kim Yong-jae, The Herald Business

Warning signs are emerging in math learning among ninth graders. In this year's national academic achievement assessment — an annual survey tracking changes in academic performance among third-year middle school and second-year high school students — the share of ninth graders scoring at the lowest math proficiency level increased. With student confidence and interest in math also declining, concerns are growing that students may be giving up on the subject before they even reach high school.

The Ministry of Education and the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation released results of the 2025 national academic achievement assessment Tuesday. They show 14.9 percent of ninth graders scored at Level 1 in math, up 2.2 percentage points from 12.7 percent the previous year. No statistically significant changes were observed in Korean language or English.

The assessment classifies students into four proficiency levels based on whether they have met curriculum achievement standards. Level 4 indicates students who understand and can perform nearly all of the standards; Level 3 indicates those who understand a substantial portion; Level 2 indicates partial understanding; and Level 1 indicates students who need additional support to understand and meet the standards.

The decline in math achievement coincided with shifts in students' attitudes toward the subject. The share of ninth graders who said they had high confidence in math fell from 37.7 percent to 35.0 percent, while those reporting high interest dropped from 42.9 percent to 40.7 percent. Meanwhile, the proportion reporting low confidence rose from 23.9 percent to 25.9 percent.

The Ministry of Education pointed to COVID-19-era learning loss as a possible explanation. This year's ninth graders were in fourth through sixth grade — upper elementary school — between 2020 and 2022, when the pandemic forced a shift to remote learning. "Math is a subject with a strongly hierarchical structure, where understanding at one stage feeds directly into learning at the next," a ministry official said. "We believe learning gaps that developed during remote instruction in the COVID-19 period are likely a contributing factor."

However, the ministry said it could not conclude that COVID-19 was the direct cause of the decline. The assessment is designed to track changes in student proficiency levels, not to analyze causal relationships between specific factors and academic outcomes, the ministry said.

Math-related statistics for ninth graders from the 2025 national academic achievement assessment, released Tuesday by the Ministry of Education and the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation. [Provided by Ministry of Education, produced with ChatGPT]

Regional disparities were also evident. Among ninth graders, 54.2 percent of students in large cities scored at Level 3 or above in math, compared with just 37.6 percent in rural towns and villages. The share of Level 1 students was higher in rural areas at 19.5 percent, versus 13.1 percent in large cities.

The ministry said various factors — including access to private tutoring — may be contributing to the regional gap, but that further analysis was needed. It also noted that regional disparity patterns may differ at the 11th-grade level because the assessment population itself changes: students at vocational high schools are excluded from the 11th-grade assessment, altering the composition of the group being measured.

With the math achievement decline now confirmed, the ministry said it would focus its policy efforts on addressing learning gaps early and restoring students' confidence in the subject. "Because math is a subject where understanding at each stage builds directly on the previous one, it is important to provide support early so that accumulated learning gaps do not take hold," a ministry official said.

To boost student confidence and interest in math, the ministry plans to expand hands-on, inquiry-based instruction and student-participatory math activities, and to strengthen small-group supplementary tutoring and one-on-one mentoring during after-school hours and school vacations to prevent learning loss. Since the assessment does not analyze cause and effect, however, the ministry said it would conduct additional research into the relationship between COVID-19 learning loss and the decline in math achievement.

brunch@heraldcorp.com