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Science Teaching

My Lords, the House is indebted to the noble Lord, Lord Broers, for opening this excellent debate on science teaching in schools and for the thorough report of the Science and Technology Committee, which he chairs. I thank also his committee colleagues, several of whom spoke in the debate, for their work on the report. I was glad to appear before the committee and am glad to respond today. As a non-scientist, I was absolutely delighted that the noble Baroness, Lady Warnock, mentioned Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything. It was by far the most instructive book in this area that I have read myself in the past two years, although like the noble Baroness I was almost too embarrassed to mention it. The Royal Society of Chemistry, with our strong support, has sent a copy to almost every school in the country, and it has been very warmly welcomed, including by those who go on to study science themselves, so it clearly has something to say to the professional as well as the lay person. Our starting point is precisely the same as that of the Science and Technology Committee: that science is vital for our national success, and so too is mathematics, on which so much science is based—as the noble Lord, Lord Oxburgh, and the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, highlighted. Every year now, according to a recent Economist article, 1.2 million engineers and scientists are graduating from universities in China and India. That is as many as in the United States, the European Union and Japan combined. It is good to note that the UK remains ahead of the pack, compared to China, India and the USA, in the proportion of its young people who graduate in science subjects. Our universities are also in excellent shape and take their responsibilities in respect of schools—a theme raised repeatedly in the debate—increasingly seriously, as our debate a fortnight ago on higher education demonstrated. We are pioneers in notable fields of research, including bioscience, and we are still the world’s largest exporter of pharmaceuticals. However, all those strong plus points are no grounds for complacency. As global competition intensifies, we cannot afford to relinquish this position of relative strength, and we must do much better. Moreover, as the noble Lord, Lord Broers, so rightly said, science education is not just about producing scientists, any more than teaching knowledge of the past is about producing historians. A scientifically literate society means a society of people better qualified to make sensible choices about their health, to reflect upon the benefits and potential perils of technological advances, to appreciate the environmental challenges ahead and, as my noble friend Lord Winston emphasised, to appreciate the ethical dimension to all that they seek to do. To take on the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Rees of Ludlow, we have respected and very much alive figures, such as my noble friend Lord Winston and the noble Baroness, Lady Greenfield, to thank for the generally positive tenor of public debate on science at present, but schools are, of course, the sine qua non for ensuring a good supply of scientists and engineers, and citizens educated properly in science who do not go on to careers in scientific disciplines. The Government set out their objectives for schools in the Science and Innovation Investment Framework 2004-14, reinforced in last year’s Next Steps document. Our goals include increasing the recruitment, retraining and retention of specialist physics, chemistry and mathematics teachers; improving the number of pupils achieving at least level 6 in the key stage 3 science tests at age 14 and good grades in at least two science GCSEs; and encouraging more students to take physics, chemistry and mathematics at A-level. To support this, we have embarked upon a substantial programme of teacher recruitment and training; an updating of the science curriculum; investment in high-quality laboratories, ICT and other science teaching facilities in schools; and improved careers advice to encourage greater take-up of science beyond the age of 16, leading to science-based careers. First, I shall address teacher recruitment and retention, which is a central part of our strategy for all the reasons set out so compellingly by the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, and the noble Lord, Lord Dearing. Last year, we recruited 3,390 trainees to science teaching—that is, science teaching narrowly defined—against 2,590 in 2000-01, an increase of more than 30 per cent. The number of secondary science teacher vacancies in maintained schools stood at 210 in January this year, which is half the peak figure of 400 in 2001. This is partly thanks to recruitment and incentive improvements across the whole teaching profession, which have led to a very substantial increase in numbers coming forward for primary and secondary teacher training. These improvements include the payment of training bursaries for PGCE students and the development of the graduate teacher programme, which allows large numbers of mature entrants to the profession to train in schools with a salary. A range of science-specific programmes have also helped, including ““golden hellos”” or, as my noble friend Lady Morgan of Drefelin famously described them in a recent debate, golden haloes, which rightly merits their place in society. I was pleased that the Select Committee endorsed the new pre-initial teacher training enhancement courses to improve physics, chemistry and mathematics skills for candidates lacking a recent degree in thosesubjects. Following the committee's recommendation for loans to help would-be teachers, we have increased the bursary for pre-ITT enhancement courses to£225 a week for 2007, up from £150 last year. Recruitment to these courses has surged by 80 per cent in the same period, and feedback from participants indicates that the higher bursary levels are meeting their financial needs. The Training and Development Agency for Schools is also reviewing the whole issue of financial support in post-graduate training. In the mean time, the TDA offers a £1,000 premium to providerswho recruit science graduates into teaching via employment-based routes, including the graduate teacher programme. I should also mention the TDA’s support for the successful student associate scheme, which, by the end of this academic year, will have placed 30,000 science and mathematics under-graduates into schools, encouraging the students to consider a teaching career and the pupils they work with to go on to higher education. On retention incentives, the Government are not inclined to write off some of the student debt of new science teachers, not because there may not be some benefit to doing that—the noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, made that clear—but because we believe, on the basis of the research that we have done, that the incentive effect of up-front cash in the form of the golden hellos gives a greater recruitment benefit. Therefore, we intend to invest further in the golden hello and in bursary schemes, with a significant funding differential in favour of mathematics and science trainees. In these shortage subjects, the bursary has now been increased to £9,000 a year while the golden hello for new science teachers is double that of other priority subjects. The graduate teacher programme meets at least some of the committee’s concern to improve the number of good mature entrants to the profession and to see them promoted quickly. It has expanded from around 30 participants only six years ago to500 people training to be science teachers in 2005-06 and has been a significant contributory factor to the fact that for the first time the average age of new entrants into teaching has risen above 30. Taking up another point raised by the committee, I should stress that qualified teacher status is rapidly achievablefor experienced candidates who proceed throughthe GTP. The excellent new Teach First scheme puts first-class science and mathematics graduates straight into challenging schools in London and, from this year, in Manchester too and will be expanding to other cities. In 2006-07, there were 30 entrants for mathematics and 60 for science. A significant proportion of participants subsequently decide that a teaching career is for them. Teach First will be expanding considerably over the next few years and we envisage that the number of entrants for maths and science—these are highly talented and ambitious graduates—will increase accordingly. On the wider issue of pay, flexibility and discretion are already available to school heads and governing bodies seeking well-qualified candidates in shortage subjects, and some schools employ them to great effect. That said, we recognise the points made in the debate and we have asked the School Teachers’ Review Body to advise on improving the use of existing flexibilities; we are currently discussing its conclusions. One aspect of the consultation involves publicising the full range of pay options at school managers’ disposal, including rewards for advanced skill teachers and those in leadership roles. Another key recruitment issue is the supply of physics and chemistry graduates. We need far more physicists and chemists in our classrooms, and we need them to be offering the kind of stimulating, exciting and perhaps less dangerous tuition than that mentioned by my noble friend Lord Winston. Our target is that, by 2014, 25 per cent of secondary science teachers will have a physics specialism and31 per cent will have a chemistry specialism. As it stands, only 19 per cent are physicists and 25 per cent are chemists. Taking up a point made by the noble Lord, Lord Rees of Ludlow, from October a new accredited course begins for those teachers without a physics and chemistry specialism to gain the subject knowledge and pedagogy that they need to teach those subjects effectively. We are working through our current spending review settlement to determine whether participants at Brighton, Keele and Edge Hill universities will receive, in line with the STRB’s recommendation, a financial incentive to complete their courses in these areas. Let me take up the theme mentioned in the debate of the contribution of school technicians to high-quality science provision. The Select Committee welcomed the TDA’s work with the Associationfor Science Education to devise flexible trainingand career pathways for technicians. We will be considering further the position of all support staff, including technicians, in the light of issues highlighted by the Select Committee and the report of the joint union-employer working group on fair pay and rewards. For both teachers and technicians, continuing professional development is, as the committee recognised, an increasingly important aspect of career progression and is essential to raising standards in schools. In a pathbreaking partnership with the Wellcome Trust worth £51 million, we have created a national network of 10 science learning centres to provide CPD that generates both innovative classroom practice and much deeper and updated subject knowledge. In 2005-06, the science learning centres delivered more than 11,000 training days, and we are absolutely committed to their further advance. Regarding the committee’s recommendation that teachers be required to undertake a certain amount of subject-specific CPD each year, the STRB will be considering new statements of teachers’ professional roles and responsibilities, including a duty and an entitlement to engage in effective CPD throughout their careers. Following consultation, the STRB will report and propose next steps in March 2008, and the Government will take that very seriously. In the mean time, the training of higher level teaching assistants, mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Platt of Writtle, will help to provide the cover for teachers away on training. From August, we will train a further 2,000 science or mathematics higher level teaching assistants, so that every school can recruit at least one of those higher level teaching assistants by the end of 2007-08. The Training and Development Agency for Schools has already planned a publicity campaign to raise awareness of HLTAs, and we will continue to work with the TDA and with subject associations to raise the quality and profile of CPD across the board. I was also very glad to hear the noble Baronesses, Lady Platt and Lady Greenfield, speak so positively about the science and engineering ambassador scheme, not least its work in encouraging girls to pursue the full range of science disciplines right through to A-level and into degrees. The Government are expanding the science and engineering ambassador scheme, bringing the total number of ambassadors to 18,000 by the end of 2007-08; while a pilot programme is set to open after-school and engineering clubs for 11 to 14 year-olds nationwide. In addition, we are in discussion with the Wellcome Trust about the structure of the science learning centre network to encourage much greater take-up. Our discussions include the future of bursariesand ways in which to overcome financial barriers preventing teachers attending courses at the centre. All of that is being considered as part of the spending review, and I am working closely with my noble friend Lord Sainsbury on his review for the Treasury on the best ways to recruit and retain science teachers, as well as raising the level of professionalism among them. I was very interested in what the noble Baroness, Lady Greenfield, said about the young scientist centre, which I took her to say was being developed in conjunction with the Royal Institution. I would be glad to learn more about that proposed centre, and the Government may perhaps be in a position to support its work. Let me turn now to curriculum and testing. Some 107,000 more 11 year-olds achieved level 4 or better last year in the key stage 2 science tests, compared to 1997. At key stage 3, the numbers achieving higher grades are improving, as are the numbers achieving grade C or above in science GCSE. Well-constructed tests represent one part, but I stress only one part, of a strategy for driving standards higher. They offer clear measures of progress for every child. There is no evidence that good test results can be obtained only at the expense of the broader curriculum and engaging teaching. On the contrary, Ofsted has reported that the best schools achieve good test results in the context of a rich curriculum conveyed through excellent teaching. Moving forward, we will continue to slim down the secondary curriculum to make it more manageable and to give more focus to the key conceptual underpinnings and relevance of science. We will continue to give strong support to the 21st century science syllabus referred to by the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley—I am afraid that I am now over time—and we will continue to invest in science labs as part of the wider Building Schools for the Future programme. I should stress that the commitmentto investing in science laboratories has been incorporated into the wider investment in school buildings programme, which now stands at£6.4 billion a year—10 times greater than in 1996-97 and there is independent evaluation of how that investment proceeds.