Incentive for pupils to take science and maths

We are seeing a decline in pupils taking science and maths. The government is reviewing an incentive scheme that pays the pupils who decide to take science and maths. Is this the right thing to do? I don't think so. I can fully imagine the government using this scheme because they have introduced a similar scheme to reward pupils who decide to stay on at school rather than leave early. Why rely on money? Science and maths are very important subjects which should already be an incentive for children to take. The government must look at why the subjects are unpopular and try to fix the imbalance by tweaking things accordingly. A common reason is that other subjects are easier. So two immediate options. Either make science and maths easier or make the other subjects harder. Another option will be to reward pupils with more points for taking science and maths (the points should closely follow the hardness of the subject).

Another problem is that science and maths are taught without any applications. Surely we can design these subjects so that pupils can see the relevance to society. Even better, introduce maths and science more to the other subjects to reflect how they cover different subjects. This should be done at an early stage so that the teachers can cope.