In early July Edinburgh belatedly erected a statue, complete with semi-invisible hand, to Adam Smith, thus granting one of the fathers of economics, and Scotland's most meritorious son, long-overdue recognition. Yet there is a good chance that the statue will garner as many glances of blank indifference as of knowing admiration-at least from Britain's younger citizens.rnAccording to a report this week from the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham, only three of the 16,440 graduates who began training as secondary-school teachers in England last year enrolled to teach economics. In 2006, by comparison, 84 graduates signed up to do so. Not unrelatedly, perhaps, the number of students studying A-level economics has fallen by 29% over the past decade, even though total A-level entries have risen by 9%.
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