Boys and high-achieving students are more likely to study science for the Junior Cert than girls and students with lower ability levels, according to the findings of a new ESRI study.
The report, Who Chooses Science?, found that boys who took chemistry and girls who took any science subject tended to be from a select group of higher ability and from a professional background.
Similarly, the children of parents with a third-level education were more likely to take physics.
Pupils streamed in the "bottom" class were less likely to study a science subject. Dr Emer Smyth, one of the report's authors, said the view that science was "an elite subject" should be challenged and the subject should be promoted as "science for all".
The perception that science was a difficult subject was a definite factor in its decline in popularity, she added. In 2001, only 12 per cent of Leaving Cert students took chemistry, while 16 per cent took physics. Some 59 per cent of students surveyed in the ESRI study said they found science difficult.
Gender differences also played a role. In the senior cycle, physics was mainly taken by boys, while biology was preferred by girls. Chemistry was more gender neutral but was still only taken by one-tenth of Leaving Cert students.
Dr Smyth and her co-author, Ms Carmel Hannan, have recommended that science be made a compulsory subject for the Junior Cert. Science is taught in about 98 per cent of schools but is only compulsory at Junior Cert level in about 60 per cent of schools.
Dr Smyth said science take-up was higher in schools that emphasised practical work and student involvement in lab sessions.
"It is recommended that schools be provided with the resources, equipment and appropriate class sizes to allow for regular experimental work within Junior Certificate science classes," she said.
