Dr. Margaret Leahy:

I will go back to early childhood and primary education again and think of the love of a subject that teachers can engender in their pupils. Time and time again, we hear that people did a subject because they had a wonderful teacher. Early childhood and primary teaching are predominantly female professions. We have been talking about the lack of female participation in science at second level or third level. A number of people who are coming into these professions do not have a solid foundation or even interest. Those of us at pre-service level need to take these students, develop their understanding and knowledge and give them as much experience as we possibly can in order that they, in turn, can engender a love of STEM, embed STEM and do STEM in practice.