Wonder of science will get us all out of this mess
WHATEVER you think of politicians during this coronavirus pandemic – and I’ll bet a few four-letter words have been lobbed at the TV over the past four months when they’ve filled the screen – it’s clear that much of our successes have been down to the scientists, engineers and clinicians applying their analytical training to solving the problems in front of us.
Think of the civil engineers building a string of Nightingale hospitals in double-quick time. Or the data scientists modelling the virus and informing the decisions. Or the systems architects capturing the information that allows us to see local peaks, or the design engineers that helped design and manufacture respirators at the start of the infection so that our hospitals weren’t overrun with patients needing ventilated, without the kit to make it happen.
And that’s before we even start on the doctors and nurses, with their years of medical training, making split-second decisions on behalf of patients, and those directing them such as Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer or Jason Leitch, Scotland’s national clinical director.
Without the science, we would be nowhere. And it is becoming ever more clear that we will only begin to get back to something resembling normal when an effective vaccine is developed, pressed into production and rolled out around the world. Science, again.
Covid may have caught the world on the hop, but pandemics are not rare – think SARS, bird flu, HIV/AIDS or Ebola. Add in other significant threats affecting the world’s population – such as climate change, drought, disease, flooding or famine – all can be offset, cured, mitigated or overcome in part or in full by man’s ingenuity and technical advances.
If we are going to cool a warming world, feed a growing global population, create flood defences or more efficient irrigation systems, fight disease and remove toxins from air and water supplies, we will need more scientists, mathematicians, computer programmers and engineers to do so.
Developing practitioners in socalled STEM subjects [science, technology, engineering and maths] is crucial for any nation and should be a priority for ours.
But in the latest PISA international rankings, comparing educational performance between countries, Scotland fell to its lowest ever level in both maths and science. We have hundreds of teacher vacancies across subjects such as maths, chemistry, physics and computer science.
In some parts of the country, such as the North East, the gaps are so bad that it’s affecting pupil choice – there are students out there wanting to study and sit exams in these essential courses, but simply aren’t able to do so because there aren’t the teachers to teach them.
SCOTLAND has lost hundreds of STEM technicians – the people who look after equipment and chemicals and set up experiments so children can get vital hands-on experience. Figures show a third of technicians have been lost by schools over the past decade.
When it comes to the next generation of scientists and engineers, the picture is an unequal one, with a persistent gender gap. Girls may make-up the majority of Higher Biology entrants, but they are swamped in physics, where they make up just over a quarter of entrants. In computer science, it’s even more dire, with girls making up just one in six of pupils studying to Higher grade.
It’s no wonder, then, that this is reflected in the workforce – the National Advisory Council on Women and Girls states that just 19 per cent of Scotland’s engineers are female, while only 10 per cent of senior managers in STEM professions are women. Scotland is simply not training enough scientists or engineers – it doesn’t recruit enough teachers in these subjects to give every child the opportunity to learn, it’s falling down the international league tables and women and girls are Scotland’s great untapped talent in this area.
Covid could be a massive ‘reset’ button for planners and politicians. We know that getting a new generation of bright, well trained and motivated STEM professionals into our labs and workplaces is essential for the country’s continued health, economy and environment. Let’s make this a national priority.