Is Redirecting Focus Towards STEM Subjects a Good Thing?

As part of an austerity platform which has generally meant shrinking budgets committed for education in many countries, many education systems have had to redirect and re-prioritise their budgets away from arts and other courses which have no clear economic requirement and towards STEM subjects; Science, Technology, Engineering, Math.

If you take the UK as an example, a lot of money and investment has been refocussed upon improving STEM subjects, but as a consequence other subjects such as humanities and arts have lost some of their investment.

While focussing on STEM subjects is likely to mean that the country will be able to satisfy demand for highly skilled workers, there are potentially negative consequences regarding failure in providing a well rounded education. A well rounded education is often a result of offering a liberal education, and when you compare a liberal education (for instance like what is offered in the USA’s education system) and non-liberal education (like the UK), we see that many students feel greater levels of satisfaction with liberal educations, although they do have to pay more for them.

It can also be said that it is a good thing for everybody to have a basic understanding of issues and some degree of mastery of a wider range of skills and subjects rather than a high level ability in a singular skill.