Decline In School Science

Sir - Prof L. D. Burke cites (August 8th) the low funding available for third-level research as one of the important reasons …

Sir - Prof L. D. Burke cites (August 8th) the low funding available for third-level research as one of the important reasons for the fall in interest in the physical sciences.

Yet each year statistics are produced highlighting the continual fall in the number of second-level students studying science, in particular physics and chemistry. Present concerns are rightly centred on the need for all students to be scientifically literate and on the possible skills shortage in scientific areas to the detriment of the economy. However, the present-day school science curriculum bears a striking similarity to that of the 1920s. And both the guidelines and teaching styles being recommended to teachers are reminiscent of the 1960s.

The Irish Council for Science, Technology and Innovation, in its Statement on Science in Second Level Schools (1999), stated the "research...is increasingly focused on how traditional modes of science teaching have contributed" to the decline in numbers of those taking science.

I find it quite disconcerting that there appears to be no Government funding available for research into innovative school science programmes which could help to redress this decline. Is it because there is no a financial reward at the end of this specific scientific research, unlike the eight projects recently gifted with £58 million? - Yours, etc.,

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Damienne Letmon, Shelton Gardens, Dublin 12.