Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael)
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I thank our guests for coming in. It is great to hear feedback from our teachers on the ground about both the junior and senior cycles. They are bringing much experience to the committee and we very much appreciate it.

One of the key points I picked out from the three presentations was the need for an advertising campaign around supporting STEM. Mr. Duffy and Mr. Convey both highlighted the importance of a campaign that showcases how STEM can help or what it means for a career. The guests at our last meeting talked about careers people would never think would involve STEM but do. These included farming and extended to hairdressing, because of the chemical makeup of colours and things like that. It was very interesting to see STEM is part of every part of life and is not just out there on its own. It is about the idea that STEM is part of many things we do in our day-to-day activities. I understand what our guests mean about the idea of schools, and the Department and the State, trying to get that message out there. There may be an onus on us to bring in our partners in employment to emphasise the importance of STEM and get support around advertising it as well. It is key that children see they can achieve this. I have spoken before about the importance of role models. It is about children seeing they can achieve whatever role they decide to follow up on as a career.

Will our guests give me an example of what might be an effective way of encouraging primary school children to consider taking on science, physics or chemistry when they get to junior and senior cycle? What might that look like? Mr. Duffy and Mr. Convey may wish to respond to that.

Mr. Jones referenced the value of practical work and the gap between junior and senior cycles, which has been highlighted. I was not aware there was not as much of a weighting given to it. I see the value of practical work. Experiments are crucial. Is it that there has had to be a focus on other areas in the curriculum and that has taken away from the weighting given to practical work?

Does Mr. Convey have any other comments around the practical work? On the gap, what happens when students do not do transition year? I will put that question to Mr. Duffy as he brought it up as well if I am correct. I think he commented that if students do not do transition year they will be missing out. He might speak about the importance of transition year. My first question was for Mr. Convey on the promotion of STEM at junior level.