Funding for science subjects urged

FUTURE investment by industry in this country is being jeopardised by the Government’s failure adequately to fund and resource science subjects in schools.

According Irish Science Teachers' Association (ISTA) chairperson Siobhán Greer, major pharmaceutical companies that have been investing heavily here could relocate to Eastern Europe or India where there is a greater emphasis on science in schools.

"Science subjects have for too long been the Cinderella of our education system. There's an urgent need for the Government to adequately resource science education, especially at second level where future career decisions are made," she said.

"Politicians are being very short-sighted in their attitudes to such subjects. Science should be a compulsory subject and there should be proper laboratory facilities in schools. It's a disgrace that kids have to do science in ordinary classrooms, because schools don't have sufficient lab facilities for every science class."

Ms Greer, addressing the 1,200-member ISTA conference, in Tralee, Co Kerry, over the weekend, also said there had been a fall-off in the number of students taking science subjects in the Leaving Certificate from an average of 100% in the mid-1980s to around 80%, at present.

One of the reasons, she pointed out, was that the students took hard-headed decisions not to take science subjects as they were less likely to get higher grades in physics and chemistry.

She called for the implementation of recommendations contained in the task force report on physical sciences, including the spending of €80m on science education. Other recommendations were that every second level school should have adequate lab facilities and that technical assistants be provided for science teachers.

"So far, the signs are not encouraging," she told delegates at the Institute of Technology, Tralee.

"All schools are experiencing severe cutbacks and building programmes are put back, or on hold. The possibility of new laboratories, or the refurbishment of old ones, has disappeared."

Ms Greer said revised, or new, syllabi, had been taken on in the last four years and a revised junior science syllabus was due to be introduced next September, but without enough funding. Most schools, she added, needed at least one new lab to meet the demands of the new junior syllabus.