Madam, - There has been much comment on the low numbers of students sitting higher level science and maths, and the poor results achieved. Business leaders warn of likely damage to the country's economy and claim that we need more qualified engineers and scientists (The Irish Times, August 17th).
However, the explanation is right on their doorstep. These same business leaders offer minimal career growth to engineers and scientists. Most engineering jobs are basically dead-end jobs, where the best prospect for significant salary growth is to do an MBA and move away from technical work.
Until recently, engineering was at least regarded as a stable career, but not any more. Technical jobs, especially in high-end work such as research and development, are often the first to be cut in leaner times and many large companies have a policy of outsourcing technical work to contractors in developing markets.
So any student who is bright enough to be a successful engineer or scientist is probably also bright enough to realise that in today's environment this is not an attractive career choice. The starting salary may be good, but after 10 years an engineer may be earning up to three times less than comparable students who studied accountancy, medicine or business.
For perspective, this has been a topic of debate in the US for some years now. There have been two recent articles in the Wall Street Journal from business leaders bemoaning the low level of interest among the brightest students in studying science and engineering.
In each case, they were met with a barrage of replies from engineers saying that, in the current business climate, they could not in good faith recommend careers in science and engineering to anyone. If business leaders truly needed more engineers and scientists, then they needed to put their money where their mouths were, and offer better salaries, better careers and better job security.
Exactly the same is true in Ireland. - Yours, etc,
DENIS O'SULLIVAN, St Brendan's Drive, Coolock, Dublin 5.
Madam, - Minister for Education Mary Hanafin's support of the proposal to award bonus points for higher level maths and science may in fact exacerbate rather than alleviate the declining interest in these subjects at third level (The Irish Times, August 17th) .
There are other factors to consider. For example, while there has been much talk of "interest" in these subjects, there has been little mention of "aptitude"; and the two are strongly correlated. A certain percentage of students show an aptitude for higher maths and these same students usually also have an aptitude for subjects such as physics and applied maths. Such students do not find these subjects any more difficult than others.
The Minister might be better advised to invest more resources into aptitude testing and career guidance to identify and optimise the numbers of students taking up higher level maths and science, rather than simply offering a carrot for unsuitable students to take the wrong career path.
It is worth remembering that one of the first mathematical principles a child learns is that one cannot fit square pegs into round holes. - Yours, etc,
EILEEN O'DUFFY, The Village Gate, Dalkey, Co Dublin.