Ireland's attractiveness to foreign industry is threatened by an "alarming" decline in the study of science in second-level schools, an education conference in Dublin was told at the weekend.
The conference, organised by the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland, also heard that too many second-level students spend too much time working in part-time jobs An emerging crisis in science education could threaten the State's attractiveness to industry, Mr Frank Turpin, director of academic affairs with Intel Ireland, said. Factors such as our membership of the EU and our taxation policies are less important than before to potential investors; the most important advantage Ireland can now offer to companies is a well educated workforce. he said. But the status of physics and chemistry has declined enormously at second level, he complained, and this was beginning to be reflected at third level. "The university professors are only beginning to wake up to the decline now," he said.
He called for more investment in school laboratories staffed with technicians and assistants, saying "the quality of labs in a lot of places is less than ideal". Intel has provided laboratories at two schools in Leixlip, Co Kildare, where it employs 4,000 people.
Mr Turpin was questioned about Intel's attitude to trade unions. "We discourage unions," he said. "We have a two-partner culture and we do not believe there is any need for a mediator between us.
"In our industry all the software companies and most of the hardware companies work on that basis. We have a happy workforce and there is no need for a union."
Ms Susan Hall, a member of ASTI's central executive committee, said there was an "emergency" in the schools regarding attendance. It was possible to go into town centres and city centres on any school day and see plenty of children, she said. "Do they not have schools to go to?" At second level, children stayed home "for the most frivolous reasons," she said. These included debs' dances, which seemed to require taking the day off before the dance and the day after it.
She condemned "the appalling abuse of the child labour laws", with schoolchildren working during the week, spending the money at the weekend and not being able to learn on Monday mornings. Poor school attendance contributed to literacy problems, she said. Students who went to school regularly rarely turned out later to have poor literacy skills. A teacher in a Dublin second-level school told The Irish Times that absenteeism in her school rose significantly on Fridays as students started work in weekend jobs.
Padraig O'Morain can be contacted at pomorain@irish-times.ie