Action to lift science studies

EVERY high school in Australia will have to employ science and maths teachers who have studied the subjects at university under a new Federal Government plan to solve a crisis in Australian education.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham will today announce the drastic move to tackle the plummeting number of enrolments in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects.

The Turnbull Government could also use its federal funding powers over universities to force them to change their enrolment criteria so that more science and maths specialists are deployed in high schools.

Currently about one in five science and maths teachers have not completed any tertiary subjects in the fields, while some schools have no teachers with the qualifications. Under the plan, primary schools that have more than two or three teachers will also need to have at least one STEM teacher who is specialised in the subjects.

In a speech to the national conference of the Australian Science Teachers Association, Mr Birmingham will say it is “unacceptable” that secondary school students are taught science or maths subjects by peo- ple “without specialist skills in science and maths”.

“Between better workforce planning and smarter use of technology, every high school should have access to specialist teachers to teach specialist science and maths subjects,” Mr Birmingham will say.

“And we should strive to achieve this within the next five to 10 years.

“Based on better workforce data, the states should be willing to make clear to universities where their employment priorities lie and create direct incentives for more people to consider specialising in physics, chemistry, biology, technology or maths.”

A recent report by Australia’s Chief Scientist, Alan Finkel, revealed there had been a long-term decline in year 12 enrolments in science and challenging maths subjects.

Uptake in intermediate and advanced maths has dropped by 33 per cent over two decades, while participation in science fell 7.3 per cent from 2002 to 2013.

Mr Birmingham said primary school students also needed to be taught by more specialists “inspire their interest in the sciences”.

“We should aspire for every primary school with more than two or three teachers to have a science specialist,” he said.