Madam, - The universities have it within their power to improve matters significantly re the study of science subjects without recourse to redesign of the syllabus, rebranding of the sciences or the commissioning of further reports.
Glancing at the relevant statistics and taking account of the available anecdotal evidence, it is quite clear that many students who fully intend to pursue a career in science, engineering and healthcare study have only the minimum number of relevant subjects at Leaving Certificate level (in many instances amounting to a single laboratory-based subject).
This trend is exacerbated by the CAO system that demands that candidates attempting to gain entry via the Leaving Certificate on a multiple of occasions only have to achieve the same points total as those completing their first sitting, thereby encouraging the now common practice of repeat students picking and choosing subjects according to the predicted grade rather than due to any interest, aptitude or relevance to future plans.
While both of these trends are rooted in the commonly held, and sometimes valid, belief that science subjects are more difficult, they could easily be reversed if universities were to specify that applicants to science, engineering, computing or healthcare-based courses had to study a minimum of two subjects, physics, chemistry and biology as well as mathematics at a suitable standard.
The third-level institutions could even specify which of these options applicants for each course had to sit or indeed that more than two science exams had to be sat.
The inflation in points caused by repeat of the exam could be reduced by specifying that these entry requirements have to be met at each sitting.
In the longer term, the system will surely have to differentiate further between candidates, given that even third-level graduates can currently re-sit their Leaving Certificate and compete for undergraduate places with less well-read 17 and 18-year-old first-timers. - Yours, etc,
ROBERT LOWERY, Skehanagh, Crecora, Co Limerick.