Some 15 per cent of Leaving Cert students in Dublin are working part time for employers who often pay "scant regard" to their educational needs, according to a leading educationalist.
Dr Don Thornhill, chairman of the Higher Education Authority, has called on the business community to take a more pro-active role in the development of education policy.
Business leaders often complained about the inward-looking nature of the education sector but few were prepared to get involved in the hard graft of developing policy in advisory committees, he said.
In a wide-ranging address during a weekend IBEC conference in Cork, Mr Thornhill - a former secretary of the Department of Education - said recent cutbacks in research funding had provoked dismay across the academic community.
Widely regarded as one of the leading education thinkers in the State, his comments will be seen as a response to recent remarks by the IDA chief executive, Mr Sean Dorgan, who complained about the "introspective" nature of the education debate and its failure to "connect" with the needs of wider society.
Dr Thornhill said he fully agreed with the strong emphasis which Mr Dorgan placed on the importance, relevance and "connectiveness" of our education system to economic and social development.
"I also agree fully with the emphasis which he placed on education in science and technology. I agree that debates on education tend to be confined far too much to educationalists."
However, he said, there was another side of the coin. "Schools and teachers complain about employers whose recruitment practices of young temporary workers pay scant regard to their academic progress.
"We hear stories about secondary students working long hours in pubs and shops. Some 15 per cent of Leaving Certificate students in Dublin work more than 20 hours a week.
"In the universities and institutes of technology," he continued, "part-time working of up to 20 hours per week by students is a major contribution to drop-out rates."
Dr Thornhill said employers should agree on a voluntary code of conduct with educational organisations for the employment of students.
On science, he pointed out that the Republic had a higher proportion of students studying science subjects and computing at third level than most other countries.
However, he warned: "We can only develop a world-class innovation structure by investing much more heavily than we do at present in research and development.
"Our levels of investment in R&D - both by the public sector mainly through the higher education system and by business - are significantly lower than those in our key competitor countries."
Against this background, he said, the HEA was disappointed that the Government had announced a pause in capital funding under the Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions in 2003.
He said: "I know that this decision caused dismay among the research community and also in business. For many people, it brought back memories of stop- go patterns of research funding in the past."