Last month, the Minister for Education and Science, Micheal Martin, outlined his £15 million plan for the furtherance of science in schools in Ireland. His plan envisages substantial investment in the Republic's schools' science labs, the introduction of new Leaving Cert syllabuses by the year 2000, an intensive in-career development programme for teachers of science in Junior Cert and Leaving Cert programmes and a promise of a £10 per student grant to schools for every student who takes up physics and chemistry at senior level.

The Minister believes that it is critical for Ireland's development as a world leader in high skills employment that we improve our performances in physics and chemistry. His grave concern about the lack of sufficient graduates to take up meaningful jobs in industry is the same concern which seven years ago prompted an initiative between the US multinational, Schering-Plough at Brinny in Co Cork and St Brogan's College in Bandon.

The company's motivation in becoming involved with schools in science education was a wish and will to support in as tangible a way as possible local educational initiatives. The programme has impacted very positively on the young people who have availed of it. Over the years, it has helped make a career in science a viable and attractive option for many students from the area.

The programme brings students from a number of schools to St Brogan's where they are shown and participate in a number of science experiments. They also take part in guided tours of Schering-Plough's plant in Brinny which produces Intron A, the company's brand of Interferon which is a treatment for various cancers. They then submit a science project on their experience of the programme.

Some pieces of equipment are presented to primary schools to help promote interest in science. Prizes are awarded to students who complete outstanding projects.

The 1995 White Paper on Education, Charting Our Education Future, spoke of "effective partnership" as "active co-operation among those directly involved in the provision of education and the anchoring of educational institutions and structures in the wider communities they serve . . . this co-operation will recognise the autonomy of individual schools, but equally will recognise the benefits of constructive co-operation in enhancing the welfare of all students and making the most effective use of available resources."

The programme at St Brogan's College is in line with this thinking and, we believe, promotes science for the betterment of pupils and the benefit of Ireland generally.

Pat McCarthy, a science teacher at St Brogan's College, Bandon, Co Cork