Mr. Barry Convey:

On the first point about the experience of primary school students with STEM subjects, if we look at all of the mechanisms that are used to ascertain how students are doing on an international basis, such as the programme for international student assessment, PISA, and trends in international mathematics and science study, TIMSS, which are some of the common ones that are used, there is no reference to engineering or technology. Nobody is trying to get a handle on whether we are doing well in STEM or not. In these assessments, STEM generally is maths and sometimes a little bit of science. The data and results from the international surveys are being misrepresented as to how we are doing in STEM when that is not the case. The Department must put together a mechanism to establish where we are at and then come up with a-----