MATHEMATICS proved to be a stumbling block for all races - but especially for Malay students - going by the latest report card issued by the Education Ministry on Monday.

This is despite by relentless efforts over the years by self-help group Mendaki to improve Malay students' performance in mathematics.

In both mathematics papers in the Primary School Leaving Examinations(PSLE) and the O levels, the performance of all races saw a dip.

The PSLE paper saw Malay pupils suffer the greatest setback with a 2.1 percentage point drop to 56.8 per cent of Malay pupils who passed the paper, continuing a downward trend since 2005.

Chinese pupils had 89.8 per cent passes last year, down from 90.3 per cent in 2006, while Indian pupils saw 74 per cent passes, a dip from 74.7 per cent in 2006.

The O level paper saw Indian students with the greatest slip in performance - from 79 per cent in 2006 to 75.9 per cent last year.

The proportion of Malay students who passed drop from 68.3 per cent to 66.2 per cent, while the proportion for Chinese students fell from 92.6 per cent to 91.7 per cent.

Apart from mathematics, science is another problem subject for Malay pupils: From a high of 78.4 per cent passes in 2004, the proportion has been dropping until it hit 73.6 per cent last year.(07)

But despite setbacks in individual subjects, the overall report card for all races is still a glowing one.

In PSLE, pupils had an overall pass rate of above 95 per cent; the proportion of O level students with at least three O level passes is also at 95 per cent and the proportion with at least five O level passes is 80 per cent.

Also, Malay pupils continue to shine in Mother Tongue for all levels, performing consistently better than their Chinese and Indian counterparts.

The data, which is released by MOE each year to provide feedback to the communities on how their children have fared, is based on the ethnic groups' performance in the three major exams - Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), and at the GCE O and A levels.

Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.