Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

There were 39 recommendations in the report of the task force on the physical sciences, four of which do not apply to the education sector. Their costed proposals total €244 million, of which €66.3 million would be a recurring annual cost. Progress has been made on 25 of the recommendations. In particular, important progress is being made in regard to curricular reform and in-service support, with new syllabi already implemented in leaving certificate biology, physics and chemistry, revised syllabi in primary science and junior certificate science beginning in schools in 2003-04, and work under way on a new leaving certificate physical sciences syllabus to replace the physics and chemistry combined syllabus. All these developments are being or have been supported by national in-service programmes for teachers.

Another development is resourcing, with substantial grants issued to schools at primary level in 1999, 2001 and 2002, an additional per capita grant for physics and chemistry at leaving certificate, a capital grants programme for senior cycle science, information and communications technology and science equipment, the implementation of a once-off grant scheme to support the implementation of the new junior certificate science syllabus, and ICT integration projects in teaching and learning under the schools IT initiative and the new TV Scope programme in partnership with RTE, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment and the National Centre for Technology in Education.

Other developments include the provision of materials and publications to schools to promote the attractiveness and relevance of science for students as a subject option and career path, reviews on mathematics, grading of subjects in the leaving certificate, gender equity issues in science and initial reports on teacher training undertaken. Awareness measures supported by industry and third level colleges and which link with schools have been introduced, and the new discover science and engineering programme was launched in October 2003 which brings together all the existing awareness activities in a unified strategy. Investment in the programme for research in third level institutes continues apace to enhance and promote world class standards in research, innovation and development.

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