Madam, - And so it begins again - articles describing the high failure rates in Leaving Certificate maths and science subjects and Ibec representatives worrying about the resulting impact on our future economy. The debate will continue for several weeks as it plays out through our national media, with various people offering suggestions and analysis of what to do and what has gone wrong. The problems are, in my opinion, quite simple but the solution is more difficult than most realise.
Firstly, the fundamental problem is that Irish society does not place an importance on understanding science and maths commensurate with these subjects' impact on our world. Consider for a moment the embarrassment one would feel on behalf of a close friend if they voiced their belief to peers that Copenhagen was located in Germany.
I seriously doubt that many people would feel the same level of embarrassment if a friend didn't know that a neutron has no electric charge. The uncomfortable fact is that it is socially acceptable to be bad at science and maths, with people united in a common, self-deprecating bond that mutually excuses this ignorance.
Society even has negative words for those "unnatural" people who do not conform, and do not find science and maths difficult - we called them "geeks" and "nerds" and imply that by having an ability at science, they lack other qualities. Last week the two RTÉ television stations devoted a total of five hours to programmes with a "scientific content", and I use the term loosely since they were either nature documentaries or history programmes with slight references to archaeological finds. To put this into perspective, RTÉ also devoted five hours last week to re-runs of Murder She Wrote.
Why science is so marginalised by our national broadcaster is a question nobody seems willing to ask.
When was the last time anyone mentioned the fact that physicists are amongst the highest-paid professionals in the US, and on average earn more than graduates of business, marketing, and law courses in that country? An education in science is not essential just for the sake of our economy, it is a necessity if our youth are to make informed decisions on aspects of our technology-based society in the 21st century.
Until we all focus long-term on societal attitudes towards science and maths, and stop bombarding young people with the notion that "everyone" finds science difficult, that being good at science makes one different from the collective, or that scientists are "geeks" and "nerds" rather than trained professionals who greatly contribute to our nation, no amount of tinkering with or investment in the education system will increase the numbers studying those subjects. - Yours, etc,
Dr JAMES FRYAR, National Centre for Plasma Science and Technology, Dublin City University, Glasnevin.