Mathematical literacy

• Compared to 2019, regional results showed modest improvement in mathematics.
• SEA‑PLM 2024 was aligned with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) learning indicator at the end of primary education, adopting Band 5 (previously Band 6) as the minimum proficiency level on the mathematics scale. Under this benchmark,
  • 67% of students reached minimum proficiency (up from 56% in 2019)
  • 52% of students reached the highest proficiency level (Band 6+)
  • 9% of students remained at very low proficiency.

Reading literacy

• Compared to 2019, regional averages in reading showed little or no progress in SEA-PLM 2024.
• With Band 5 as the new minimum proficiency benchmark due to alignment with SDG learning indicator,
  • 53% of students reached minimum proficiency (up from 47% in 2019)
  • 36% of students achieved the highest proficiency level (Band 6+)
  • 15% of students remained at very low proficiency.

Writing literacy

• 27% of students reached the highest two proficiency levels (Band 4 and Band 5+).
• 20% of students remained at very low proficiency.

Note.The 2024 writing proficiency scales were newly developed for this cycle and are specific to the writing domain; they are not designed to be interpreted alongside or equated with reading proficiency scales.
 

Children’s background, home influence, and school experience

• Socioeconomic status (SES)
  • SES remained one of the strongest predictors of differences in learning outcomes between children.
  • The correlation between SES and learning outcomes was moderate to strong, creating learning gaps equivalent to up to two years of schooling.
  • This correlation was found for both reading (ranging from 0.28 in Cambodia to 0.56 in the Philippines) and mathematics (ranging from 0.34 in Lao PDR and 0.36 in Cambodia to 0.48 in the Philippines).
  • However, positive academic resilience (students from the lowest SES backgrounds demonstrating the highest performance) and negative academic resilience (students from the highest SES backgrounds demonstrating the lowest performance) were observed in every country.
  • Comparing SES effects between 2019 and 2024, differences remained high and consistent across most countries, regardless of overall achievement levels.
• Gender
  • Across the six participating countries, girls’ and boys’ enrolment in primary education was fairly equitable. However, there were notable differences in learning outcomes by the end of primary education.
  • In reading, as in 2019, girls showed higher average performance than boys (ranging from 4 to 9 scale points), a pattern that was evident and significant in all six SEA-PLM 2024 countries.
  • In mathematics in 2024, the differences were more mixed:
    • Girls and boys showed similar performance in Malaysia and Myanmar.
    • Girls outperformed boys in Cambodia, Lao PDR, and the Philippines.
    • Patterns shifted from 2019 to 2024, with some countries developing new gender gaps and others seeing previous gaps disappear, including one case where boys outperformed girls and another where earlier differences were no longer observed.
• Preschool attendance
  • In almost all countries, a greater proportion of the 2024 Grade 5 cohort had benefited from at least some form of preschool (55 per cent to 98% across the participating countries) compared with 2019 (41% to 98% across the participating countries).
  • In the majority of countries, students who had attended preschool achieved better learning in reading and mathematics by the end of primary education. Score gains ranged from small (from 2 scale points) to medium (up to 12 scale points), almost equivalent to a shift of one full proficiency level on the SEA-PLM proficiency scale, depending on the country and subject.
• Grade repetition
  • Official grade repetition policies varied by country. While Malaysia had adopted a policy of automatic progression, the rest promoted children based on their learning performance.
  • In the region, the percentage of Grade 5 students who reported having repeated at least one grade during their primary school journey ranged from 9% in Viet Nam to 37% in Cambodia.
  • The impact on learning outcomes of repeating at least one grade was significant:
    • Students who had previously repeated a grade were more likely, on average, to have lower levels of achievement in both reading and mathematics.
    • Across both domains and all participating countries, the score differences ranged from 8 to 19 scale points in 2019 and 2024, indicating up to one year’s worth of education in some cases.
• Language of instruction
  • As in 2019, in Cambodia and Viet Nam more than 90% of children reported speaking the language of the test at home, compared with less than 10% of children in the Philippines and approximately 60% to 80% in the remaining countries.
  • As observed in 2019, across the majority of countries, on average in both domains, children who reported that the language of instruction was the same as the language spoken at home outperformed children who spoke a different language at home, with scores increasing by about 5 to 20 scale points in reading and mathematics.

• School and teacher characteristics
  • Rural and urban schools
    • In all countries (except in Malaysia for reading), students in schools in urban areas performed better in both reading and mathematics than those in rural areas.
    • In comparison to 2019, with the exception of Cambodia, differences have widened in the majority of countries
  • Public and private schools
    • The majority of Grade 5 children in SEA‑PLM countries attended public schools, over 90% in all countries, with rates reaching 98% in Malaysia and Viet Nam.
    • In all countries, the average performance of students attending private schools was higher than the average performance of students attending public schools in both reading and mathematics.
    • Compared to 2019, the performance gap between the private and public groups had grown in all countries except Cambodia (and in Malaysia for mathematics only), with the largest increase observed in the Philippines.
  • Class size: SEA‑PLM 2024 showed no consistent regional link between class size and reading performance, with correlations varying by country and even reversing direction across contexts.
  • Textbook availability
    • On average across the six participating countries, the majority of children attended schools with one textbook per child, for both reading and mathematics lessons.
    • The differences in average reading achievement for children who attended a school with one reading textbook per child compared with children who attended a school with no textbooks or shared textbooks were not significant in most cases
    • Where a difference was noted in 2019, it had largely disappeared.
    • However, in 2024, textbook availability was associated with higher learning outcomes in the Philippines for both reading and mathematics and in Myanmar for mathematics only.
  • Bullying and other issues hindering school capacity and well-being
    • SEA-PLM 2024 data showed a negative correlation at the national level between a greater number of issues occurring frequently among Grade 5 students and performance in reading and/or mathematics.
    • On average across the six countries, the most common issue hindering school capacity was a shortage or inadequacy of digital technology used for instruction. In some countries almost 75% of the children attended a school where the principal reported that this issue hindered school capacity to a large extent.
    • Overall, compared with 2019, occurrences of issues hindering school capacity seemed to be reducing in Lao PDR and Malaysia, remaining stable in Cambodia and the Philippines, and increasing in Myanmar and Viet Nam. Access to instructional materials generally improved; infrastructure challenges decreased in Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Malaysia but increased in the other three countries.
  • School closures during COVID-19
    • In some countries, Malaysia (81%), Myanmar (62%), and the Philippines (68%), a majority of 2024 Grade 5 students attended a school that had been physically closed for more than six months during the pandemic.
    • Across the region, from 1% (Myanmar) to 28% (Lao PDR) of 2024 Grade 5 students experienced early grades in schools that did not close during COVID-19 or that were closed for a short period only (defined as less than three weeks).
    • Only in Malaysia (for reading) and in Myanmar (for mathematics) was a significant difference observed, with students in schools that were closed longer demonstrating higher outcomes on average; in other countries, the length of school closure alone did not account for differences in point scores between students.
  • Issues affecting students’ learning in class
    • The most common issue reported by teachers was the students’ lack of basic knowledge or skills, with 15% to 25% of Grade 5 students in classes where teachers reported this as a concern.  
    • This was closely followed by ‘students' lack of interest’.