News & Views item - September 2006

 

 

Science Community Partnership Supporting Education (SCORE) Backed by the UK Royal Society is Set Up. (September 27, 2006)

    According to Britain's Royal Society, "The next generation of scientists could be lost if urgent, concerted action is not taken to address the major challenges facing science education".

 

A new partnership of scientific learned societies, science teachers and other key science organisations has been organised by the Royal Society, Science Community Partnership Supporting Education (SCORE) aimed at addressing "the serious problems, such as the decline in numbers of young people taking A-level physics and the unacceptable shortages of specialist teachers in physics and chemistry in our schools and colleges".

 

SCORE's founding members are the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Institute of Biology, the Biosciences Federation, the Science Council, the Association for Science Education and the Royal Society.

 

Vice President of the  Royal Society, Martin Taylor said:

We have a window of opportunity in the next five years to ensure that we stem the decline in the sciences. If we get this wrong, we risk losing a generation of scientists. We need young people to be inspired by the sciences and mathematics so that they choose these subjects in sufficient numbers to ensure that the UK's economy prospers and that we retain our place as a world leader in science and technology.

The Government won't reap the returns from its significant investment in scientific research unless we have a workforce able to formulate great ideas and turn them into reality, and that takes not just expert scientists but a whole raft of technicians, managers and support staff with a sound science education.

While there are clearly no easy answers, SCORE will provide the Government with a coherent voice from the scientific community, advising on how to best address some of the key issues facing science education.

Science education is facing troubled times. In particular, at A-level Physics is under siege. This year A-level entries in physics reached a new low with a massive 37 per cent fewer students choosing to take the subject than in 1991. And the Government also faces huge challenges concerning getting more specialist science teachers into schools, with figures published last month showing that PGCE [Postgraduate Certificate in Education] applications for initial teacher training in the sciences and mathematics are down on last year.

In the view of the RS the challenge for the partnership will be to work effectively with government and others over the plans published in the UK government's Next Steps document in March for substantial increases in A level entries in physics and chemistry as well as the recruitment and retention of specialist teachers.

 

So far SCORE's objective have been painted with a broad brush: "The partners will undertake collaborative projects, conduct joint studies, develop common evaluation procedures and share best practice. They will develop a programme whose focus will be on activities of a type already shown to have an impact and whose principal emphasis will be on providing support for teachers."