Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Professor McCormack spoke about the societal and cultural bias and the conscious and unconscious elements of that. I sat on the Joint Committee on Gender Equality, which reported just before Christmas. This was an area of which the citizens' assembly recommended further examination. One issue that came through strongly at the Joint Committee on Gender Equality related to the fact we pigeonhole students from a young age. By the time they get to fifth and sixth class and are considering which secondary schools to go on to, there is an element of geographic lottery to the range of subjects that are available and to whether the student will be able to study STEM subjects in secondary school. In the experience of Professor McCormack and all our guests, how important is it to increase access to subjects among children from fifth and sixth class?