Meeting of the Parliament 25 February 2015
Unfortunately I do not have much time. I would love to, but I cannot at this stage.
In giving evidence, Stuart Farmer of the learned societies group said:
“basic knowledge in science subjects is being taught well ... lots of pupils are seeing positive benefits from studying science”.—[Official Report, Education and Culture Committee, 27 January 2015; c 8.]
One of the things that we agreed on is the question about how we get to where we want to be. We need to ensure that young people are aware of the future that they could have. As has been said already, the cabinet secretary has said that there is no such thing as a girl’s job or a boy’s job, and we have to make sure that we move away from those terms when we are talking about STEM subjects because it is important to include everyone from all backgrounds.
We received a briefing for the debate from NUS Scotland, which said that
“We have seen a strong focus, and welcome action, on widening access over the last few years, and the current drive to improve participation and attainment across Scottish education is also welcome. However, we must build on this not only for STEM, but also more generally for post-16 education as a whole.”
Last week’s debate on attainment was the real life-changing debate. The Scottish Government has committed to the Scottish attainment challenge and the attainment fund, and it is going to invest in people from difficult backgrounds to ensure that they get their opportunities. When we are having this debate, we should make sure that we do as NUS Scotland says and talk about the STEM subjects, but we should not forget about everything else that is happening in education. We need to ensure that we encourage everyone to be all that they can and to pursue whatever careers they want in future.