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Science Teaching

My Lords, I join in thanking the noble Lord, Lord Broers, for introducing this debate. It so happens that, in 1995, the then Government appointed me to carry out a review of qualifications for 16 to 19 year-olds. It quickly became apparent that there was a crisis in science and mathematics. I appointed an expert committee to look into what had been happening and why. That research showed that there was a rapid build up in the number of students taking A-level science and mathematics between 1974 and 1984—I believe that it continued to the late 1980s—but, by 1994, it had fallen like a stone. The fall has continued, except in biology, at a much lower rate since. The number of students taking chemistryin 2005 was one-third less than the number in 1984. In mathematics, the number had fallen by half. In physics, the fall was even worse, and the number was only 43 per cent of the 1984 figure. Biology has held its own. Those are absolute numbers, despite the increasing number of pupils staying on at school until the age of 18 or 19. I can think of no other area of learning where there has been such a serious fall that matters so much to our future. It bothers me that we have not successfully addressed this problem which was clearly identified 10 years ago. There is concern but we do not yet have the product. I welcome the Government’s targets, but, based on experience, we need clear, firm policies to realise them. At the top of my list is investment in teachers and what goes on in the classroom; what is taught, how it is taught and the kids. The noble Lord, Lord Winston, told a story. I will bring it up to date. I was told the other day that in a survey pupils were asked which subjects in the curriculum were the most difficult. The answer was: maths, science and languages. They were asked: what would you do to improve things in sciences? The answer was: less listening, less copying notes and more big bangs. That is a true story. They wanted to do research in the laboratory. There was a television programme the other night about some kids from state school going to a private school. What were the differences between the two types of school? The private school had smaller classes, and, whereas in the state school the teacher did the research work, in the private school there was enough money for everybody to do it. Therefore, I say invest the money there and, as has been suggested, ring fence it. I took part in a study on language teaching. We proposed an expenditure of more than £50 million to rescue languages. The money is largely going into teaching, particularly for existing teachers. I say to the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, that on the curriculum the QCA were very responsive and anticipated all I had to say about the need for new thinking on it. I move to an issue that has not really been developed: the influence of the league tables and the differences in the standards that appear to be required in the different subjects. My expert group in 1996 identified big differences in the levels of challenge at A-levels between the different subjects. The House’s own committee has carried out a similar study10 years on. The results were not exactly the same in detail but very much the same. First, the pupils and the teachers perceive that some subjects are much tougher. The statistical analysis has been the same for 10 years. We must face that. Indeed, 50 years ago when I was doing these subjects at school, I remember that the most difficult were physics, mathematics and chemistry. The committee says that A-levels are fundamentally flawed. We must address that issue; we cannot walk away from it. Further, I suspect that too many subjects are being taken as A-levels rather than as, what we would have called in the old days, GNVQs. We must tackle that hard subject. I turn to the performance tables. Head teachers are running very competitive businesses. It matters to them what their results are in the performance tables. If some subjects are more difficult than others,they do not discourage pupils who have the same perception and want to walk away from them; they may be rather relieved. Performance tables, like other incentives to perform and to inform, have unintended consequential effects. One side effect is to damage the very subjects which are the most challenging and which we need more pupils to take. Since I may say no more, I just say that if there is one recommendation that I urge the Government to accept it is that on investment in teachers’ continuing professional development.