So, how serious is the science crisis in schools and at third-level? Áine Kerr reports

More than one in 10 students failed science-related subjects at ordinary level in the Leaving Certificate this year amid a continued decline in the numbers studying science and a prevailing sense of unease about the subject.

Perceived as almost "unfashionable" among students who now enjoy unparalleled subject choice, science and its related fields are failing to foster students' enthusiasm despite unprecedented Government funding and major marketing campaigns aimed at making the subject more attractive.

Out of the 50,000-plus students undertaking the Leaving Cert exams this year, the numbers opting to study a science-related subject hovered around the lowly 6,000 mark.

The problem facing science is best exemplified by the Leaving Cert results this year in which 20 per cent of boys undertaking physics and chemistry at ordinary level failed the subject, in addition to the 16 per cent who failed biology.

At honours level, 8 per cent of boys failed both physics and chemistry, while 6 per cent of girls failed physics and chemistry.

In another worrying trend, some 15 per cent of students failed ordinary-level chemistry with the failure rate also high in biology (13 per cent) and physics (9 per cent).

Central to the problematic relationship between student and science is the fact that students knowingly and correctly perceive physics and chemistry as the toughest exam subjects to pass at Leaving Cert level. Only 7,528 students sat the physics paper this year.

Even biology, which has continually proven to be the most popular science subject on the Leaving Cert syllabus is notoriously long and despite a recent review both students and teachers report difficulties covering the course. While half of all Leaving Cert students take biology every year, one in four students actually choose the ordinary-level paper on the day of the examination.

At Junior Certificate level, the fate of science is no different. According to figures provided by the Department of Education, more than one in 10 Junior Cert students do not study science, leaving them seriously disadvantaged when it comes to subject choice at Leaving Cert and their future career options.

Even at third level, more than one in four UCD students have previously either failed their first-year science exams or dropped out of the course after the university dropped the points levels for science in an attempt to arrest the fall-off in student demand.

However, simply blaming students' lethargic attitude to science on lack of interest or the failure to market the subject as "fashionable" is unfair when the lack of technical support and equipment in schools is considered.

Despite a report by the Task Force on the Physical Sciences in 2002 which recommended the provision of technical assistants in second-level schools at a cost of €18.8 million a year, the EU norm of providing technical assistance is uncommon in Ireland.

Hence, enabling students to gain a "hands-on" experience of science and to engage in experimentation and undertake experiments becomes increasingly difficult when many secondary schools still do not have adequate laboratories or laboratory assistants.

While the newly-revised science syllabus returned an 81 per cent honours rate at Junior Cert level this year, the general picture continues to relay a story of failures and waning interest in science at a time when the Government is attempting to market itself as a "knowledge economy".