Reforms needed to entice students towards science

EFFORTS to improve student attitudes to science will remain unsuccessful unless reforms in teaching and out-of-school activities are increased, research has suggested.

Following the introduction of a revised Junior Certificate science curriculum in 2003, it had been expected that more students might take up the physical sciences of biology and chemistry for Leaving Certificate.

But the study by the Education Research Centre at St Patrick’s College in Dublin found that young people taking the new course are no more interested in either subject than those who studied the older syllabus.