Science teachers are increasingly angry at the under-resourcing of their subjects at second level and at the "well-acknowledged crisis" in the take-up of science at second and third level, the Irish Science Teachers' Association (ISTA) heard at the weekend.
Countries which had supported the study of science, such as India and eastern European countries, were poised to "take" the pharmaceutical industries because of a looming dearth of science teachers and of second-level students with any science subject, Ms Siobhan Greer, the chairperson of ISTA warned. The ISTA has 1,200 members.
Teachers were facing into a new Junior Cert syllabus in September, but without the resources required to teach the new syllabus, Ms Greer claimed at the conference, which was held at the Institute of Technology, Tralee.
The teaching strategy in the revised syllabus was one which emphasised the "hands-on" approach for pupils, with practical activities an essential component. Some 35 per cent of the marks in the syllabus were based on lab work and investigations.
Adequate laboratory facilities, equipment and technical assistance were vital and teachers were viewing "with alarm" the prospect of the new syllabus in September without these supports.
Ms Greer criticised the way funds for science were distributed. The money should be put in at second level instead of being "poured" into third-level post-graduate research programmes, which was a kind of window-dressing, she said.
"Science has been the Cinderella of Irish education. At second level, the resources have never been adequately put in . . . What is the point in window-dressing at the other end when, at second level, students are not taking science as a core subject?" she asked. "The fact that students are in ordinary classrooms doing science is a disgrace."
Ireland was the only EU country which did not have technical assistants in second-level schools to help set up experiments and to assist in the teaching of science. Most third-world countries had such assistants.
As a result of the "hassle", science teachers were turning away from the laboratory towards maths and computers while physics graduates were in much demand by industry.
The decline in Leaving Cert students taking science as a core subject since the mid-1980s was dramatic. In 2001, some 20 per cent of Leaving Cert students took no science subject - compared to a take-up of almost 100 per cent in the mid-1980s.
This decline was partly driven by the perception - found to be accurate by the Education Research Centre - that it was harder to get a higher grade in physics and chemistry than in other subjects.
The 2002 report of the Task Force on the Physical Sciences contained the ISTA "wish list", but one year later there were no signs of its implementation. There had been no response to the recommendations on laboratories. With the cutback in the schools' buildings programme, even the refurbishment of old labs was not going to happen.