Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

My Department is fully committed to strengthening the quality of science teaching and learning, promoting increased scientific literacy and encouraging more students to choose science subjects. Progress in these areas is a vitally important part of our national strategy to support competitiveness and employment.

Significant progress is being made in regard to curricular reform and in-service support for science at both primary and post-primary levels. Science was introduced as a key component in the revised primary school curriculum in 1999 and has been implemented in all schools since September 2003. A revised syllabus in junior certificate science was introduced in 2003 and was examined for the first time in June 2006. This syllabus, with its hands-on investigative approach and its new emphasis on scientific process skills, will be instrumental in encouraging more students to continue their study of science at senior level. A particularly interesting innovation in the revised syllabus is the introduction of the assessment of students' practical work. This assessment accounts for 35% of marks in the junior certificate examination and is based on the completion of 30 mandatory practical activities carried out during the three-year course and on projects undertaken by students in the final year.

Revised syllabuses in leaving certificate physics, chemistry and biology have all been examined for the first time in the past five years. These three subjects are now included in the first phase of the senior cycle review currently being undertaken by the NCCA. This revision of the syllabuses is intended to build on the progress achieved at junior cycle level. Work on the revision of the two remaining leaving certificate subjects — agricultural science and combined physics-chemistry — has also been advanced.

Additional equipment grants have been provided to schools, and laboratories continue to be refurbished as part of the ongoing school building programme. In that context, €13 million was issued to schools in 2004 to support the implementation of the revised junior certificate science syllabus. New and refurbished science labs have also been provided in schools as part of major building projects and through the summer works scheme.

In addition, the introduction of each of the revised syllabuses has been supported by comprehensive in-service programmes for teachers. The strategy for science, technology and innovation sets out a range of measures to further strengthen science teaching and learning and to improve the uptake of senior cycle physics and chemistry. These include ensuring that the project based hands-on investigative approach, which is now in place at junior cycle, is extended to senior cycle, that the appropriate type of assessment is used, and that there is an emphasis on the interdisciplinary nature of science in society.

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