Dr. Ruth Freeman:

When we look at the world that lies ahead of us, there is an argument for the critical role STEM will play in dealing with climate change, in particular, and the big societal changes that are coming. Having a STEM-literate population, and a history-literate and English-literate population, is a good thing. That is the strength of our system because things do not operate in silos. It is a disadvantage if we get people to specialise very early on, but we could have different emphases on their subjects. As Dr. Smyth alluded to, maybe not all the subjects would be assessed for a university route. It is getting away from this idea that someone is only in school to focus on that big exam summit at the end. If we broaden it to include school being about education to be a lifelong learner, a global citizen and someone who can, in an informed way, participate in democracy and the decisions society has to make, that changes the conversation. I do not know if that answers the question.