Reaction: There is little prospect of improving the quality and availability of science graduates unless the recommendations of the Department of Education's task force are implemented, the head of the group said yesterday.
Speaking on RTÉ radio after Leaving Certificate results showed that students continue to struggle in both mathematics and science subjects, former DCU president Dr Danny O'Hare said the group had made wide-ranging recommendations which would have helped this country "begin to turn the corner".
These included a new focus on the provision of facilities, the setting up of school laboratories to assist teachers, and renewed school planning for science. Dr O'Hare said these recommendations, estimated to cost initially about €178 million, with a recurring budget of €66 million a year, had largely been ignored.
"We made the point that no one recommendation on its own would solve this problem of the popularity of science with young people, but it was a full menu that needed to be implemented," he said. "Too few of our recommendations have been actioned."
Dr O'Hare said the group had proposed that a high-level implementation group be set up to oversee the introduction of its recommendations, but this had not happened.
There was a "mismatch" between the skills available to teach the sciences at Junior Certificate level and what the curriculum demanded. "If the recommendations of the task force remain unimplemented, I don't see that there is any real prospect of us turning this issue around.
"There is the national development of the economy at stake as well . . . And if we fail to reverse this trend, then we are going to be put at a disadvantage vis-a-vis other countries or competitor countries."
But the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Dempsey, said he was "somewhat bemused" by some of the comments being made. Commenting on the fact that one in five students cannot apply to third-level colleges because they have failed maths, Mr Dempsey said it would not be good for the economy if 100 per cent of students applied.
"We do need people in apprenticeships. We do need people in the construction industry. We need them in the tourism industry. We need them in a whole range of industries that do not require third-level degrees or third-level education," he said.
"We have to keep a balance. I think fixating on one small area of the examinations . . . the fixation that we all have at this time about high points and the high achievers and everything else . . . the exam and the education system is about young people achieving their own potential and not everybody is going to be a scientist, a rocket scientist or a mathematician or whatever."
The Labour party called on Mr Dempsey to examine the decline in the uptake of the subjects.
"As long as students have a lack of confidence in their ability to succeed at the science and maths subjects there will be a continual decline in the level of uptake of these subjects for Leaving Certificate," said education spokeswoman Ms Jan O'Sullivan. "There will continue to be a tendency to take subject courses in which it is perceived to be easier to get high grades."
The Catholic School Parents' Association said it was calling on Mr Dempsey to take "decisive action" by setting the maximum class size at 24 for all maths and science subjects from September.