Science and maths in schools: It’s all adding up

IT’S not so very long ago that academics and industrialists expressed concern that not enough second level students were taking maths or science at higher level. 

They suggested some students were incapable of maximising the opportunity offered by a third level course and did not reach the standards that would guarantee them a job or satisfy employers.

Various schemes were launched to try to resolve this shortcoming, including offering extra CAO points for those who might take maths at a higher level. Campaigns to make second level science more attractive were also launched and these schemes are bearing fruit. This changing mood is confirmed by the fact that there is a record number of entries for the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition. Some 2,048 entries, involving 4,449 students from 371 schools in the Republic and 25 from Northern Ireland, have entered. This is a 8% rise in the schools involved with more than half of all secondary schools in the Republic participating. Almost two thirds of the entries are from girls, with 38% from boys.