Migration background per se has no effect on math performance
Published: Tuesday, Dec 5th 2023, 11:20
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A migration background alone has no effect on pupils' performance in mathematics in Switzerland. This is the conclusion reached by researchers as part of the Pisa Study 2022. Rather, it plays a role whether 15-year-olds speak a different language at home than they do at school.
Unsurprisingly, pupils from more socially privileged families in Switzerland achieve significantly higher results than those from families with an average social background, according to the Pisa study.
This effect is somewhat higher than in Italy, Germany, Finland and the OECD average, for example. However, Switzerland does not really differ significantly from other countries in this respect.
Overall, however, the report concludes that the "effect of social background" is still "relatively pronounced" on average in the OECD and in all countries compared.
Language is crucial
A migration background, on the other hand, does not have a fundamentally negative effect on the mathematical performance of pupils - regardless of whether they are young people from the first or second generation of immigrants.
Rather, the language they speak at home plays a role: Those who do not speak the "school language" achieve significantly lower results in Switzerland than those who speak the school language at home, according to the report.
Although this effect is less pronounced in Belgium and Italy than in Switzerland, the situation in Switzerland is not statistically significantly different from the comparison countries.
Gender also plays a role
Gender also plays a role. In Switzerland, girls achieve weaker mathematical results than boys. "This difference is statistically significant," write the authors of the report.
Comparable, also statistically significant results can be found in other countries, such as Estonia, Germany, Belgium and France. The same applies to the OECD average. The difference is also somewhat more pronounced in Austria and Italy.
"However, the differences in points to the disadvantage of girls can be classified as small overall," the researchers conclude. Finland is the only comparison country in which the results of girls did not differ from those of boys.
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