Science needs specialism

3:56pm Monday 11th February 2008

SCIENCE is an important part of education.

Teaching science equips our next generation with the knowledge they need to consider and address some of the most critical issues facing this country and indeed the world - the future for biofuels, renewable energy sources, climate change, genetic modification, mapping the human genome - all of these are scientifically-based issues.

In the world of employment, the demand for science and technology professionals will increase by between 18 per cent and 30 per cent by 2014. This compares with just four per cent for other occupations.

At the moment, the country is heavily reliant on employing scientists from overseas to fill job vacancies, which is not the most robust approach in a competitive market because, in the future, many of these specialists will eventually return home, taking their skills with them.

This continuing shortage of scientists is creating a mounting problem for many science and engineering-based industries located in the UK, including many in our part of north Hampshire.

SO, AT a time when there has never been a higher demand for people with a science specialism, why are so few qualified science students emerging from our schools, colleges and universities?

We have many excellent science teachers, but only 19 per cent are physics specialists and just 25 per cent have a chemistry specialism.

Nationwide, one in four schools has no specialist physics teachers and more than one in 10 has no specialist chemistry teachers.

The knock-on effect is that while many students continue to take science at GCSE, they are only offered a combined science course, which means they may not be equipped to go on and study science in depth after GCSE.

Science is a vital part of education and all secondary schools should be offering their pupils the chance to study biology, physics and chemistry separately.

TO CONTACT Maria, call her at the House of Commons on 0207 219 5749, e-mail millerm@parliament.uk or write to her at The House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA.

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