Mr. John Irwin:

I thank the committee for the invitation to speak today. The Association of Community and Comprehensive Schools, ACCS, represents 97 post-primary schools across the State. They are multidenominational schools, all but two of which are co-educational schools. They have an enrolment of more than 65,000 post-primary students. We are the representative management body for those schools. In that organisation there are a number of sub-committees that are involved in different aspects of research and work. We have an ICT sub-committee, which particularly in recent years with the Covid pandemic, has looked at how we can reach out to students in those areas. The sub-committees also look at areas across STEM. Looking at this particular piece, we welcome the STEM Education Policy Statement 2017-2026, which was put in place. We also welcome the research underpinning that, which was published in the report, STEM Education in the Irish School System. Those are two documents that looked at where we would have liked to see this go between 2017 and 2026. Like others, we acknowledge that some of the progress has been stymied or slowed in certain areas on the basis of what has happened over the past two or three years with the pandemic. We welcomed the establishment of the baseline data as an initial step. In addition, the monitoring of trends of engagement, progression and achievement are essential aspects of this particular plan and to any prospect of success. Decisions must be based on reliable and informed data. It is also welcome that many strengths in the STEM education system are identified in Ireland, but a number of challenges exist. Among those, it is important to ensure that Irish students learning in STEM disciplines significantly improve their development of skills such as problem solving, inquiry-based learning and team working to address demands from the world of work. We welcome some of the initiatives in curricular areas such as mathematics. We welcomed project maths and the manner in which it is trying to change work methodologies. We also welcomed many features at junior cycle where we have seen a greater emphasis on practical work in science. There is a need to increase the number of students choosing STEM subjects in post-primary schools. There is also a need to increases the participation of females in STEM education and careers, as well as to raise interest and awareness of a range of exciting careers in STEM. We will refer to that again a little later. We also need to ensure young people sustain their involvement in STEM education.

We have got to look at where we stand internationally, and we very often talk about the quality of our particular education system. Pillar four of the plan, the use of evidence to support science, technology, education and mathematics, STEM education, is essential. When we go out and look at both PISA and TIMSS, which are the two comparative tests that are used internationally, it is interesting to note that in STEM areas we perform below average, which is a cause for concern. That is below average for our higher performing students, for that top 10% cohort. We actually perform well for the vast majority of our cohort, but at the very top end, in the top 10%, if you take a look at the results that came in from the OECD, in mathematics 8% of students scored at level 5 or higher, well below the OECD average of 11%. In science, 6% of students in Ireland were top performers, meaning that they were proficient at level 5 or 6, again below the OECD average of 7%. When we consider that what we are trying to achieve here is the ultimate goal of the best STEM education system within the European sector and internationally, we know in that particular cohort of high-achieving students that there is work to be done.

Interestingly - and Professor Anne Looney spoke about this previously - we achieve very highly at literacy levels, and again if we take a look at literacy levels in the PISA results, 12% of students in Ireland were top performers in reading, while the OECD average was 9%. Is there a sort of cultural imprint here to a certain degree, and an idea in Ireland that we are better with words than numbers? For example, we have all heard of W. B. Yeats and Samuel Beckett, all the way to the modern day with Seamus Heaney, but can we name who our successful scientists and mathematicians are to the same degree? There could be a cultural influence here as well as a balance that need to be addressed.

That whole area of the performance of our highest performing students needs to be looked at it. In TIMSS, we have the same finding. Performance among the highest achieving students is somewhat poorer when compared to their peers in countries with similar overall performance. This is the key issue we need to address at the top level of our education system.

There are numerous strategies to promote STEM, and events such as Science Week, Maths Week, the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition, SciFest, etc., all go a long way towards promoting STEM education and creating those links for young people outside of the classroom. We had a seminar a number of years ago at which an address was given by a professor of education, Professor Alan Kelly, who was originally from Donegal but ended up in the English system. He always referred to "the school outside the gate", and how important it is for the education system to look beyond the confines of the school, and look to the community. I experienced that as a principal, where we engaged with a group which was called Atlantic Corridor but which is now called Midlands Science. We brought in a major project to look at maths, which we were not scoring well at, and our STEM subjects. In the space of four years, with that intervention and by dealing with companies like Abbott Ireland and Ericsson, by working with what was then Athlone Institute of Technology and with local businesses and the community itself and by putting a focus on that with the teachers and students involved and with everybody else, we saw STEM progression increase in the school from 27% to 42%.

These philanthropy groups like Midlands Science, which are funded by the Ireland Funds and other groups, should be continually supported because they bring that relevance. We had Student Voice events on a Friday and Monday within our organisation and with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA. One of the key things students tell us is that they want relevance. They want it relevant to their lives and their futures. By engaging them directly with employers and third level institutions, it is really worth continuing.

We have seen the wonderful success that the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition can be, and the wonderful impact it can have within schools. Our own school is mentioned in the STEM Education in the Irish School System report, which included a case study of Kinsale Community School, and the actual impact it had. It has an advantage in that the pharmaceutical sector is in that area, but the school is using the resources all around it to support that for those students.

Investment in education is key here. We have got to invest, and it will remain a key priority. That has got to go from initial teacher education to continuing opportunities for staff to engage. Again, I go back to Midlands Science. We were able to bring people to our teachers in schools, both primary and secondary, in the midlands area. We were able to bring over, for example, the likes of John Mighton from the University of Toronto, who leads education in JUMP maths, or junior unidentified maths prodigies. He worked with the staff and students. We could not do that off our own bat because we would not have the finance to do it. We looked outside our jurisdiction to see what they do in other areas to really try to see where it is.

We are doing this against the background, which we will have to accept at the minute, of significant challenges and difficulties in recruiting and retaining teachers in the education system, particularly in the area of STEM. It is something that, to a degree, the Irish education system can be proud of, but our graduates are now in a global market and are prized globally. There must be something right happening in the Irish education system. However, that means we have got to be able to make sure that we provide an attractive offering for our young people coming out of our schools, so that even if they travel for a few years, which many young people want to do, they will return and bring not only the skills they have learned in our colleges, but the skills they have learned overseas to share with our students. We have got to make sure that teaching is an attractive offering, with continual opportunities for professional development. Go raibh míle maith agat, a Chathaoirligh.