Meeting of the Parliament 25 February 2015
The teaching of science is a subject that is close to my heart, but more important, it is central to the country’s economic future, as Liz Smith was right to say. The Institute of Physics has calculated that Scotland has 100,000 jobs—or 4 per cent of the workforce—in physics-based industry, but those high-skilled, high-value jobs drive 10 per cent of the economy. That percentage can only increase. At a recent event in the Parliament, the Institution of Engineering and Technology told us that by 2022 we will need 147,000 more engineers than were needed in 2012.
However, science teaching in this country faces what I have previously called a perfect storm. The learned societies group has demonstrated that our schools do not have the resources to teach practical science properly, and it has warned us of a looming shortage in science teachers, most notably in the crucial area of computer science, where numbers fell by 14 per cent in only two years. The group knows that the targets for teacher training in computer science have been raised, but it reports that those places cannot be filled. As a result, we are not addressing a situation in which 43 of our high schools do not offer computer science at all.
The Institute of Physics recently told a meeting in the Parliament of a similar shortage of physics teachers and reported that the brightest teachers are heading for England. No wonder—the latest New Scientist contains a full-page advertisement telling people that they can receive £25,000 tax free to retrain as physics teachers. That is not the Teach First programme; it is the equivalent of a postgraduate certificate in education. It is a £25,000 bursary to train in physics, and would-be physics teachers who are mobile are, of course, voting with their feet.
Meanwhile, as the new curriculum rolls out, pupil numbers in STEM subjects are falling. I know that the minister has quoted numbers for highers that are holding up, but the problem is coming behind that. Presentations at levels 3, 4 and 5 are 5.6 per cent down in physics, 8.8 per cent down in chemistry, 8.9 per cent down in biology, 9.4 per cent down in maths and, not surprisingly, 22.5 per cent down in computer-related subjects. The Government’s survey of numeracy levels also reports a significant drop at all levels.