I don’t think the answer is to encourage the masses to flood into science departments. Nor is it, necessarily, to condition them for the lab from the crib, like the do in China. That leaves you with not a population of Newtons, but some geniuses (per usual) and lots and lots of people who are pretty good at math. Same as how a national Push for Literary Greatness wouldn’t produce a nation of Shakespeares, rather reams of mediocre doggerel.
No, the solution is to locate, pluck out, and encourage those with natural aptitude and desire. Prepare the ground for geniuses to rise. Mass factory education never could manage that; at best they raise the average a bit.
For my wife's niece, high school was a social mecca. I am not sure she learned anything beyond the sixth grade but managed to graduate from high school without repeating a single year. She did some summer courses but that turned out to be a formality in attendence.