‘Make it easy’ science courses recipe for disaster

FORMER Intel CEO Craig Barrett, quite rightly, has said our education system, especially in the sciences, is on the high road to disaster.

I retired from teaching many years ago. Even then, as a science teacher, I and many of my colleagues were bewailing the dumbing down of the curricula. The courses being introduced had less and less to challenge the student or stretch the mind.

The reason was a well meant effort to make sure no student could fail. No one thought to face the reality that we all have different abilities and that a student who failed in one area would often excel in another.