More than 22 per cent of this year's Leaving Cert students failed ordinary level biology, one of the highest failure rates recorded for any subject in State examinations. The failure rate in ordinary level physics was 13 per cent while more than 10 per cent of students failed ordinary level chemistry.
Such high failure rates will make it harder for schools to attract pupils to the subject. Despite intense promotional efforts by Government and industry the past decade has seen an alarming drop-off in student interest in science. Teachers, too, have been pressing for a radical restructuring of science courses to make them more relevant to students.
This year, the number of students taking science subjects showed an alarming downward trend. Biology, the most popular science subject, attracted 24,000 candidates - or less than 50 per cent of the total student body, but only 8,000 students took physics and 6,000 studied chemistry for this year's Leaving Cert exam.
Last night, the employers' body, IBEC, warned that difficulty in achieving good grades in sciences would reinforce the ongoing trend away from the subjects. IBEC claims that falling participation will prove a disincentive for future student uptake of science subjects.
"Students are not the problem, teaching methodology, assessment techniques and laboratory infrastructure are some of the issues that need to be reviewed. It is imperative that action is taken to arrest and reverse this drift if future high quality job opportunities are to be secured in Ireland," IBEC warned.
At higher level, the results in science subjects remained broadly unchanged. The number of honours students in chemistry was up 2 per cent to 75 per cent. The numbers with honours grades in physics, however, was down seven percentage points to 66 per cent. The honours figure for biology at 69 per cent was similar to last year.
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