Education Science and Technology and Life

  The primary education sector includes state funded primary schools, special schools and private primary schools. The state-funded schools include religious schools, non-denominational schools, multi-denominational schools and Gaelscoileanna (Irish-medium schools). For historical reasons, most primary schools are state-aided parish schools, although this pattern is changing. The state pays the bulk of the building and running costs of state funded primary schools, but a local contribution is made towards their running costs. Teachers salaries are paid by the Department of Education and Skills, and the schools are inspected by the Department’s Inspectorate. Although children are not obliged to attend school until the age of six, almost all children begin school in the September following their fourth birthday. Nearly 40% of four-year-olds and almost all five-year-olds are enrolled in infant classes in primary schools (sometimes called national schools). Primary education consists...

The children of today are gearing up to become adult citizens of tomorrow. The growth is parallel to the future of our country, reflected through quality of the present education system. A school must stimulate curiosity in the young, impressionable minds and equip them with tools to be better human beings.                                    It is widely accepted that the learning process is instrumental in shaping one’s personality and the way he/she deals with situations of life. The shift of thoughts from bookish knowledge to knowledge of life, in schools, has brought forth a sea of change. People have warmed up to the idea of education being the key to a well-rounded development instead of just a mean to acquire degrees and monetary success in life. Education must facilitate the cultivation of a healthy thought process and groom our cognitive abilities. In the present competitive world, educa...

  The media, television in particular, should focus on the task of familiarizing a larger audience - not just a minority already interested - with science and technology literacy and on increasing their willingness to engage in lifelong learning and testing the skills they has acquired. Further education courses on the use of the new technologies in industry and public administration are too narrow and job-specific. The companies and public administrations in question should provide more broadly based training and take into account the fact that more broadly trained personnel are ultimately a gain for their employers. In addition to the courses provided for senior citizens by adult education institutions, it is recommended that funding be provided for so-called "senior citizen academies" allowing older people to benefit from technological progress and to preserve and use the basic education in science and technology they have acquired in the past.  

  Public adult education institutions should offer more refresher courses related to science and technology literacy - with a view to lifelong learning - and set up working groups for Internet use. Courses should also be offered for retired people to make sure that the knowledge and skills they have acquired will not be lost and they will be able to keep up with developments in technology. Public libraries should make computers available to their users for further education purposes. Adult education courses organized in the private sector should no longer be restricted to the teaching of narrowly specialized knowledge relating to specific occupations. Particularly the political parties and trade unions agencies offering courses of this kind should make an effort to teach a broader range of knowledge. Multimedia distance study programmes offered in further education should comply with the above-described minimum standard. The aim should be to encourage everyone to learn how to w...

  Local, regional and national competitions of a type similar to the "Jugend Forscht"- Programme in Germany (young people at research) could get young people interested in science and technology and show them how innovative thinking can help them to get better qualifications for work. Such competitions are, at the same time, a creative and entertaining approach to involvement with the new communications technologies. Regardless of whether or not pupils opt for Computer Science as a subject at school, they should all acquire basic computer literacy while attending school (i.e. word processing, information retrieval, information processing) as well as a basic knowledge of the role played by the information technologies in our society. This basic education should take place in all school subjects and should be taught by all teachers, not just Computer Science teachers. Responsibility for transmitting science and technology literacy does not only lie with schools, but also wi...

  Special extracurricular programmes and special support should be given to both weaker and highly gifted pupils. Weaker pupils need programmes, the speed and developmental increments of which are adapted to their abilities. Highly gifted pupils may be found in a variety of areas, not just in mathematics or science, but they may need special forms of teaching to help them discover and develop their talents. If, for instance, someone is highly gifted in manual applications, but is not intellectually gifted, he or she may not be able to develop the gift in question, if he or she does not have a basic knowledge of science and technology. Thus, special teaching approaches often need to be developed for groups of this kind. With a view to counteracting social disadvantages, all educational institutions should see to it that the quality of education and training does not suffer as a result of a lack of technical equipment at home. If necessary, schools should provide all pupils with ma...

  The use of the new technologies should by no means be limited to scientific and technological subjects. In modern language teaching the use of computers is already taken for granted. The new technology is also gaining ground in the teaching of literature, art, and music. The traditional system of pupil assessment should stop branding young people as failures. Instead, it should provide an incentive and motivate them to be interested in science and technology. The desire to do well in final school examinations and competition for university admission should not result in young people taking what they consider to be the easier road to university entrance by neglecting science and technology subjects at school. The equality of men and women in society sometimes requires specific measures for promoting basic education in science and technology for girls and young women. Special further education opportunities (also in the form of distance learning courses) should be provided for ...

  Schools will have to show a stronger interest in the world of work and maintain closer contact with companies and public authorities. They should invite scientists and persons with practical work experience and send pupils to periods of practical training. In this context students should witness the interplay of science and technology in everyday life and be exposed to more than just the piecemeal application of textbook knowledge. Industry and public administration should be willing to provide training opportunities of this kind for thousands of secondary school pupils. Enabling secondary school pupils to take part in discussions of science and technology problems requires good media. Young people need to learn how to obtain information, where to find it and they need to learn how to assess the reliability of the information found, etc. Efforts should also be made in subjects such as Civics, Sociology, Economics, and Religious knowledge/Ethics to show the importance of scien...

  Teachers of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Computer Science and Technology should learn how to present their subjects in an engaging manner and to engender interest in them. Their teaching should relate to life experience of their pupils and to their level of intellectual development. In all subjects, not just science and technology subjects, computers should become indispensable teaching aids, just like blackboards and chalk have been up to now. With computers, teachers can achieve new dimensions in illustrating the subject matter being taught, also with regard to variability and simulations. Provided, of course, they have learned how to handle and make full use of the potentials of the new technology, and provided they have the right software, something which was often not the case in the past. In order to allow teaching to relate to the life experience of young people, school textbooks and other teaching materials should be written in language understandable and a...

  Europe's ability to compete in a world of global networks will depend to an ever increasing extent on the scientific and technological education of its citizens. The Committee of Ministers should encourage member States to devote greater attention than in the past to this kind of basic education at school and in the educational system. In addition, prerequisites for lifelong development and refreshment of science and technology literacy will have to be created and promoted in the educational system as a whole. Scientific issues should not be presented at schools just here and there, in bits and pieces, but rather in their full context. Young people should not be trained as narrow-track specialists, but rather to learn how to understand the influence of science and technology on our world in a comprehensive manner. Teachers should show how the meaningful use of science and technology could help to solve major problems facing mankind. Young people need to learn how to learn as ...

  The barriers which stand in the way of acquiring science and technology literacy are not so much the result of dominated and oriented hardware and software (these barriers to understanding may be overcome), but rather the result of monopolistic trends observed in connection with software, something which may lead to standardization, conformism and even manipulation in guiding users through the maze of information on the web. Search engines, so-called "related sites", below-the-surface sales psychology strategies, non-transparent holding companies, all of which are interwoven and interconnected with each another, attempt to steer users. Another example is the technology of encryption. The latter makes safe data transfer possible for private users, for instance when shopping on Internet with their credit cards. The few States has passed restrictive legislation in this area, banning the export of particularly safe encryption systems and thus favoring some companies in their ...

  The predominance of English in the new technologies creates additional barriers based on language. The flexibility of computer software in this regard has improved greatly over the past few years, but it continues to constitute an obstacle and in many cases it blocks access to the use of the new technologies, particularly for the older generation. In many classrooms children may be found who face learning difficulties but who, given appropriate support, would do extremely well in mathematics, science and technology. Given better teaching other children with learning difficulties would acquire at least basic knowledge of science and technology. In many countries the plea for equal opportunities in education has stood in the way of promoting talent in science and technology. With the help of educational research we have come to recognize that particularly among those groups of the population whose level of education is lower, e.g. among migrant workers, minorities, or the disable...

  Although schools offer the same courses to both sexes, consciously or unconsciously, stereotypes regarding the role of women in society and at work determine general attitudes at schools as well as the thinking of girls and young women. According to polls, they still dream of becoming such things as stewardesses, actresses, hairdressers, teachers, or shop assistants and only rarely want to enter professions in science and technology. They often shy away from taking intensive courses in science and technology subjects. In the classroom situation teachers, often unconsciously, do not devote to them as much attention as they do to boys. Boys are often more active than girls in working with computers or in doing scientific experiments, they are more assertive, and attract the attention of teachers. Teachers are not used to counteracting this. In some countries this situation has once again resulted in a call for separation of the sexes at school or at least in intensive science and...

  Secondary school leaving certificates qualifying for university entrance and sharp competition for university admission are forcing young people to make an effort to get the highest possible average marks. The result is that many senior secondary school pupils avoid mathematics and science subjects. At vocational schools, particularly public ones, teacher training and technical equipment are rarely sufficient to provide the necessary basic education in science and technology. Relevant in-service education and training programmes are still rare, even though an attempt is made in classroom work to compensate for this lack of science in technology literacy. Practical application and use of this knowledge seems to be very limited. Pupils and students in vocational education tend to learn how to use computers at home or on the job, and frequently do so better, more rapidly, and on more modern equipment than is generally the case for adults or teachers. Young people are often taught ...

  An evaluation of the situation cannot ignore the fact that the present lack of science and technology literacy observed in many countries is the result of shortcomings in the school system. Many teachers of mathematics, science and technology have an excellent command of their subject, but do not have sufficient teaching talent or training as teachers. They find it difficult to make knowledge taken from their own world of experience understandable to children on the basis of examples, evoking their enthusiasm for the subject in question, and arousing their scientific curiosity. There is too much lecturing, mechanical memorization , and asking of quiz questions. The critical abilities of pupils are not always developed and it is precisely these abilities that are of importance for basic education in science and technology. In Eastern Europe teachers are poorly paid in many cases, which is why it is often necessary to employ teaching assistants who do not have the necessary qualifi...

                                   Basic Education in Science and Technology                 In our educational system, science and technology literacy is provided primarily in subjects such as Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, as well as in manual skills subjects (at vocational schools). Subjects such as Civics, Sociology, and Economics are affected indirectly, since they help to understand the importance science and technology have in our society. Large areas of knowledge can no longer be taught comprehensively without basic education in science and technology. This ranges from foreign languages learning to art education.                                           General and vocational schools, as well as universitie...

Education Science and Technology and Life The rapid progress of science and technology has radically changed our world. Nuclear power and environmental destruction have become threats. Diseases such as cancer and AIDS have not yet been defeated. Global climate patterns are becoming unstable. Natural resources will be exhausted in the foreseeable future. New technologies, particularly in the information sector, have changed the workplace and are creating new forms of global communication and information. The question of economic attractiveness for production sites is causing more and more companies to look abroad for more attractive production conditions. Many sequences of production are being done in global networks. Physical presence in the workplace is becoming less important and teleworking is gaining ground. In order to be able to compete in this changed society, in these new patterns of work and vocational activity world of work and professions, people will need at least a minimum...