UK: pay students to study science

In the U.K., the scientific literacy and the number of students who study science is collapsing and some people started to think about the possibility to pay 500 pounds to students who will take STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, mathematics).

• BBC

Well, it's a kind of social engineering but it may be in the interest of the society to have people who are literate which may justify this unusual policy. Britain's increasing scientific illiteracy recently became obvious also because the two infamous crackpot books about physics were accepted even more uncritically than in other countries.