Students excel at science, but must improve
The latest rankings from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on scores in science tests among 15-year-olds places Ireland as high as 15th out of 57 countries, and 10th among 30 OECD nations.
The average score achieved by Irish teens was significantly above the OECD average in the PISA science tests last December, for which advance results have just been released.
Education Minister Mary Hanafin will not be commenting until the full report on Irish students’ performance is published next week. The performance is likely to boost Government plans to develop Ireland’s reputation as a knowledge economy, and attract inward investment in hi-tech science and engineering jobs.
However, multinational companies will also learn that teenagers in countries competing with us for investment did better in science. Hong Kong’s 15-year-olds are ranked second after Finland, with Taiwan, Slovenia, Britain and the Czech Republic also scoring better, with Polish, Latvian, Slovak and Lithuania students close behind us.
The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) said the results endorse the fantastic job being done by Irish teachers and show there is a firm platform from which to further promote and develop science education.
“Anecdotal evidence indicates many schools are ill-equipped in terms of equipment and facilities to provide the interactive methods needed to teach science subjects, which must be addressed urgently,” said TUI president Tim O’Meara. “We believe the Irish performance would be even more impressive if laboratory technicians were introduced at second-level schools.”
The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland said the encouraging scores have been achieved despite the lack of lab assistants or increased staffing for science in schools which was recommended by the Government’s Task Force on the Physical Sciences in 2002.
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