Scientists
and Engineers Make Common Cause in Support of Enabling Sciences.
(October 3, 2004)
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News & Views item - October 2004 |
Scientists
and Engineers Make Common Cause in Support of Enabling Sciences.
(October 3, 2004)
A joint media release between the National President of Engineers Australia, Doug Jones and the President of the Federation of Scientific and Technological Societies, Snow Barlow, marks the first time the two umbrella organisations have issued such a joint statement, and suggests that the matters discussed are considered acutely serious.
Specifically Jones and Barlow warn that declining numbers of students in mathematics and the enabling sciences of physics and chemistry lie at the heart of the skills shortage Australia is facing. They point out, "Our current and future generations of school kids are not being given enough encouragement and resources to pursue an interest in mathematics and sciences, because the schools funding debate is all about the overall amount, rather than how the funds should be allocated across the curricula."
Put simply Professor Barlow said, "Australia's future prosperity is at risk if
the low numbers of students in mathematics, physics and chemistry continue.
These subjects are the creative engine underpinning engineering and all
sciences. The latest OECD data (see table below) shows Australia ranks near the
bottom in the percentage of university students in engineering, physics and
mathematics. If we want future budget surpluses then rebuilding enabling maths
and science participation through investment in high quality teachers and
teaching is an absolute priority."
Doug Jones focused on Australia's secondary schools, "While we welcome the promise of more funding for extra apprenticeships and some token extra dollars for tertiary institutions to maintain science, engineering and technology courses, such schemes will soon run out of candidates because virtually nothing is being done at the primary school level to excite an interest in technology concepts."
And both men emphasised that a federal government regardless of political party that made an unsatisfactory level of commitment "in providing our kids with the right mathematics and science background to qualify for a career as a tradesperson, engineer or scientist, will hold this country back and is something Australian voters will have to live with for generations."
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