UK schools rapped over science education

BBC NEWS : Half of England’s comprehensives —a type of school that provides the majority of middle-to-high school education in England—did not offer physics, chemistry, and biology GCSEs last year.

In two regions—Islington and Slough—not a single pupil studied the separate sciences.

GCSEs are taken by all high school students in the UK around the age of 16. Pupils have to make a decision when they are 14 over which GCSE subjects to study.

In the new curriculum introduced last year , most schools do a core science GCSE with “additional science” for those who are interested.

Separate or “triple” science GCSEs have largely become the preserve of grammar schools and private schools.

The lack of specific GCSEs is having an affect on the next level of exams taken by students at 17 to 18 years old, and university lecturers worry that it will impact the level of knowledge students have when they start earning science degrees at university.

In a separate story BBC Education Editor Gary Eason says that in a lecture in February this year, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he wanted to double the number of pupils in state schools taking triple science to 100,000 a year, by 2014, but although students are entitled to be offered three GCSEs in the sciences—physics, chemistry, and biology—there is no legal requirement for schools to offer courses.