Banking on Quality Upper Secondary Science Teachers: An Investment Guide

Abstract

Recognition of the importance of upper secondary science education as a human capital development activity appears to be widespread across the countries featured in this book. Ironically, this awareness seems to be the least pronounced in some of the more affluent nations, where access to upper secondary schooling is near universal (there being little or no prospect of employment for unskilled youths) and where post-primary schooling tends to occur under the same institutional roof. In such systems, it is difficult to speak of "upper secondary teachers" as a discrete professional set because all teachers are expected to service the full range of post-primary grades. The importance of the upper secondary years is also lessened by the weakening of external examination systems that control the flow of students into the tertiary education sector. Systems with distinct, restricted-access upper secondary school tiers culminating in high-stakes external examinations that determine students' subsequent fates tend to be those systems where the profile of the upper secondary science teacher as a key professional is, or should be, at its peak.