If we do not boost the role of science in Ireland, we risk losing a vital opportunity, writes Leo Enright
The challenge facing Ireland today is unlike any we have faced in the past. It has nothing in common with the Economic War of the 1930s or the vertiginous recession of the 1980s and is much more like the predicament of the proverbial frog in the broiler. Everything is nice and cosy right now, but slowly the temperature will rise.
The film-maker Peter Lennon (Rocky Road to Dublin), and UCD politics professor Tom Garvin (Preventing the Future: Why was Ireland So Poor for So Long?) have each, in their own distinctive way, graphically pointed to some of the failures that kept Ireland uncompetitive for most of the 20th century. Today, on the crest of a wave, it is clear that without high-quality, knowledge-intensive jobs and without the innovative enterprises that lead to discovery and new technology, our economy will not sustain its growth and we run the risk of squandering yet another century of opportunity. Emphatically, that need not and should not happen, but the actions that we take right now will be judged by our children's children.
Science and engineering expertise are indispensable for future prosperity, so it is proper that recent newspaper headlines should have focused on the worrying decline in the numbers of young people enrolling for courses in maths, engineering and the physical sciences. But it is also important to recognise that significant progress is already being made. This is not the time for counsels of despair.
Since it was launched by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern two years ago, the Discover Science and Engineering programme has refocused the efforts of Government, industry, the education sector and voluntary bodies into a co-ordinated programme that aims to place science and engineering back at the heart of Irish culture.
It seeks to do for science what Michael Cusack did for indigenous Irish sports and Horace Plunkett did for the rural economy. Many of their pioneering early ideas of co-operative organisation in the 19th century have re-emerged in the 21st century as valid models for the kind of national effort needed to ensure our children are equipped to compete in the new global economy.
The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, has announced an additional €500,000 in funding towards Discover Primary Science (www.primaryscience.ie), which is a flagship programme of Discover Science and Engineering. A total of 550 primary schools across the country joined the scheme during the last academic year and when registration closed for this year that number had more than doubled, to 1,300 schools. The additional funds will allow the programme to continue its growth towards a target of having every primary school child in the country engaged actively in science projects.
The Award of Science Excellence was presented to 108 primary schools at gala ceremonies throughout the country over the past two weeks.
These events were attended by teachers, parents, local industries and representatives from the 45 centres that hosted training sessions for teachers. These induction days are fully supported by the Department of Education, which provides substitute teachers, and they are taking place this month throughout the country in colleges of education, institutes of technology, universities and education centres. Teachers carry out the activities set out in the classroom activity pack: 31 hands-on projects intended to support the teaching of science in the revised primary school curriculum.
Discover Primary Science is far more than curriculum support, however. It has the potential to be a powerful and highly cost-effective tool for designing and implementing new strategies on a national, regional and local level, in exactly the same way that organisations such as the GAA have been able to reach into virtually every community in Ireland. The high status which primary teachers are properly accorded in their own communities makes them ideal ambassadors for scientific literacy even beyond their own classrooms. Engaging children in primary science inevitably engages their parents, who in turn will expect to see others getting involved.
In this way a modest investment will trigger a cascade effect as the pharmacist, the local photographer, the county engineer and the village mechanic find a focus for promoting science and technology in their local schools.
It has been estimated that Discover Science and Engineering's annual budget of about €2.5 million is currently generating activity nationwide that can be conservatively valued at €25 million thanks to the commitment of countless scientists, educators, business people, public servants, voluntary groups and private citizens.
Progress in promoting science in the primary cycle must be matched by decisive action to enhance the experience of learning science in later years. A large number of studies identify a decline in attitudes towards science from age 11 onwards. The literature also shows an apparent contradiction between students' attitude to science in society, which is generally viewed as interesting and important, and school science, which is generally viewed as difficult or boring.
These same surveys show that the most positive attitudes to science were associated with high levels of teacher involvement. Good-quality teaching was also characterised by a combination of the teacher having good general science expertise and having individual subject loyalty (whether it be to physics, chemistry or mathematics).
The case for specialised science teachers is made most dramatically in Scotland, where physics teaching is carried out almost entirely by qualified physics teachers. The proportion of youngsters who study physics at A-level is more than three times higher in Scotland than in England. This, in turn, leads to a higher proportion of university students taking physics-based courses and results in a higher output of such graduates. A study on the subject, entitled No Problem Here, concluded: "Scotland has no shortage of physics teachers because it has no shortage of physics teachers!"
Discover Science and Engineering will announce shortly details of a national forum of interested parties to discuss plans for a follow-on programme in secondary schools to complement the Discover Primary Science initiative.
Leo Enright writes here as chairman of Discover Science and Engineering