Monitoring the educational achievement of primary school children: an international collaboration.

Recent development in measuring educational outcomes has led to increased collaboration between international organisations and better understanding of education systems. From SACMEQ (Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality) a full data archive of the achievement of Grade 6 pupils in fourteen developing countries (including Seychelles) has been prepared. At the same time, from the Seychelles Child Development Study (SCDS) a longitudinal information system has been built on a cohort of Seychellois children from early childhood through their primary education. In this paper, the two sets of data are used to increase understanding of the achievement of pupils in primary schools in Seychelles. The cross-national comparisons of the achievement of pupils in two key learning areas, reading and mathematics, have been discussed to highlight the relative performance of Grade 6 (P6) in the SACMEQ school systems. In addition, the literacy and numeracy levels of Grade 6 pupils have been analysed to bring into sharper focus the Seychelles primary school system. By linking educational outcome at the end of primary schooling and child development outcomes during the primary education cycle, it has been possible to confirm some of the findings from the SACMEQ study. Moreover factors with potential to influence the performance of pupils and affect the learning process in the primary education system in Seychelles have been tentatively explored.

Scholastic achievement among children enrolled in the Seychelles Child Development Study.

The Seychelles Child Development Study is a longitudinal cohort study following a group of 779 children exposed prenatally to methyl mercury (MeHg) through a maternal diet high in fish. The cohort has been examined six times beginning in infancy with no consistent evidence of adverse effects. In fact, their performance resembles what would be expected from normal children of comparable ages growing up in western cultures. During a neurodevelopment assessment at 66 months, the children were tested for scholastic achievement using the Woodcock Johnson Tests of Achievement. Their reading scores were depressed relative to US norms while arithmetic scores were within normal limits. This disparity was not evident at 107 months; in fact, reading achievement scores far exceeded expected performance relative to US norms, with over 75% of the cohort obtaining scores at or above the 90th percentile. This study reports a secondary analysis of the scholastic achievement data to test the hypothesis that the results obtained in the primary analysis were probably due to the onset of the primary school curriculum between the first and second testing, and not to inherent cognitive deficits among the children at 66 months. The results suggest that a combination of reading instruction and characteristically consistent letter-sound relationships in Creole, the language spoken at home by the majority of Seychellois families, probably accounted for the high achievement scores at 107 months.

Fish consumption, mercury exposure, and their associations with scholastic achievement in the Seychelles Child Development Study.

Studies of neurodevelopmental outcomes in offspring exposed to MeHg from maternal consumption of fish have primarily measured cognitive abilities. Reported associations have been subtle and in both adverse and beneficial directions. Changes in functional outcomes such as school achievement and behavior in exposed children and adolescents have not been examined. We undertook an assessment of school success of children in the Seychelles Child Development Study (SCDS) main cohort to determine if there were any associations with either prenatal or recent postnatal MeHg exposure. The primary endpoints were Seychelles nationally standardized end-of-year examinations given when the cohort children were 9 and 17 years of age. A subgroup (n=215) from the main cohort was also examined at 9 years of age using a regional achievement test called SACMEQ. Prenatal MeHg exposure was 6.8 ppm in maternal hair; recent postnatal exposure was 6.09 ppm at 9 years and 8.0 ppm at 17 years, measured in child hair. Multiple linear regression analyses showed no pattern of associations between prenatal or postnatal exposure, and either the 9- or 17-year end-of-year examination scores. For the subgroup of 215 subjects who participated in the SACMEQ test, there were significant adverse associations between examination scores and postnatal exposure, but only for males. The average postnatal exposure level in child hair for this subgroup was significantly higher than for the overall cohort. These results are consistent with our earlier studies and support the interpretation that prenatal MeHg exposure at dosages achieved by mothers consuming a diet high in fish are not associated with adverse educational measures of scholastic achievement. The adverse association of educational measures with postnatal exposure in males is intriguing, but will need to be confirmed by further studies examining factors that influence scholastic achievement.