South Africa is a very diverse country. Among our school learners, home and school resources are vastly unequal and very low compared to international standards. What parents have is indeed important, but the findings of the 2015 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)  show what caregivers do during a child’s early years is just as important, writes Dr Kathryn Isdale.

In 2015, against a policy landscape that increasingly places early childhood development at the heart of educational reform and strategies to reduce poverty and inequality, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) was administered for the first time at the grade 5 level.  It found that three in five learners do not exhibit the required minimum level of basic mathematical knowledge. Dr Kathryn Isdale reports.