Teaching science in schools 'essential', says Royal Society

Teaching science in schools is so essential that it must be regarded as the 'fourth R', according to the Royal Society.

In a speech to the Companions Dining Club of the Chartered Management Institute today, the society's president, Lord May of Oxford, called on the government to ensure that all young people learn about scientific reasoning up to the age of 19.

The national science academy head spoke of his “alarm” at last week's Tomlinson report on 14-19 education, which omitted “an explicit commitment to tackling the ongoing and widely acknowledged crisis for science and mathematics in our schools and colleges”.

There has been a long-term decrease in the popularity of A-level science subjects, with entries in 2004 in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics being respectively 34%, 16% and 22% lower than in 1991.

This decline will shackle economic prosperity as there will be a lack of highly skilled young people entering the workplace, and it will also result in fewer people having the confidence and competence to use a questioning and analytic approach – or ‘scientific reasoning’, according to Lord May.

"The Royal Society strongly believes that the government should, in its response to the Tomlinson report, clearly embed the acquisition of an understanding of scientific reasoning in the formal education system up to the age of 19," he urged.

Above all, in the drive for flexibility and inclusiveness, the government should not allow the Tomlinson report to be interpreted as a signal that most young people should be able to turn their backs on science after the age of 16, the Royal Society chief concluded.

(gmcg)