The Government's record in science education, adult education and early childhood education is severely criticised in a major report to be published this week.
The criticisms are made by the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) - the group which reports to the Taoiseach on key competitiveness issues for the economy.
It highlights how spending in several key education area lags well behind other developed nations. It also says that more than 18 per cent of students are dropping out before the Leaving Cert.
The NCC will publish its Annual Competitiveness Report tomorrow. This will present findings across a range of areas including fiscal policy, public sector efficiency, the development of the knowledge economy and competition and regulation.
The section dealing with education says there is "room for improvement" in several areas.
In highlighting a "marked decline" in numbers taking physics and chemistry at Leaving Cert level, the NCC proposes the introduction "without delay" of a new overall science subject in the exam, replacing the stand-alone subjects, physics, chemistry and biology.
It also expresses concern about the failure to implement the 2002 report of the Task Force on Physical Sciences, which proposed an extensive development programme in schools and elsewhere to arrest the fall-off in student interest in the subject.
The report is scathing of the State's record on early childhood education. It is of concern, it states, that "Ireland's level of investment" in this area is "lower than nearly every other country benchmarked" in the annual competitiveness report.
It says targeted initiatives in early childhood education could address educational disadvantage and "help to lower the still unacceptably high drop-out rate from second-level education in Ireland" . It also says the level of Government funding to address educational disadvantage is clearly lower than required.
The Minister for Education and Science, it says, should "develop a programme for the roll-out of pre-primary [ school] initiatives targeted towards areas of social and economic disadvantage".
The report says this should "not be financed out of the existing education programmes, but rather from a reallocation from other wider labour market programmes that are no longer needed in the current economic environment".
On adult education, the report praises the establishment of the new National Qualifications Framework but adds that "it is hard to point to many other concrete initiatives that have any significant impact on this pressing problem".
The NCC says lifelong learning should be on the Government's list of policy priorities. The solution, it says, lies with the National Adult Learning Council, but the report points out that this body is still not fully operational.
