The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) believes that young people deserve to be taught the sciences by subject specialists. ‘A-level chemistry’, the RSC insists, ‘must be taught by a teacher who has a degree in the chemical sciences. At GCSE, students should be taught the three sciences by those teachers with a degree in the appropriate science or by those who have had the appropriate continuing professional development. At Key Stage 3, students should be taught by a teaching force that represents a balance of subject specialisms’.  

For some time, however, the RSC has been concerned that there are many secondary schools around the country without one appropriately qualified chemistry teacher, and a substantial number of schools where the vast majority of Key Stage 3 lessons are taught by biologists or those without a mainstream science qualification. A report, Maths and science in secondary schools: the deployment of teachers and support staff to deliver the curriculum, published by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), in January, has confirmed the RSC’s suspicions and provided data to indicate the extent of the problem. 

During the academic year 2004–05, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), on behalf of the DfES, examined the deployment in mathematics and science departments in one in four maintained secondary schools in England. The evidence was collected via: a postal questionnaire to departmental heads and teachers of mathematics and science; a postal and telephone survey of support staff who assist in these departments; and case-study visits to 12 departments, deemed by their local authority to exemplify good deployment practices in mathematics and science.

According to the report, 44 per cent of all teachers who taught science had a special-ism in biology compared with 25 per cent who were chemistry graduates and 19 per cent who were physicists. Moreover, this imbalance in the representation of biology, chemistry and physics specialists was unevenly spread across schools. Teachers with a degree in chemistry or physics tend to flock to 11–18 schools. Schools with higher than average GCSE results and lower than average numbers of pupils eligible for free school meals tended to have a higher proportion of teachers with a science degree.  

The lower numbers of teachers with a degree in chemistry compared with those holding a biology degree mean that the chemists teach smaller proportions of science time in each year of Key Stage 3 and for single award, double ward, applied science and other Key Stage 4 courses. So this group of students would get less exposure to chemistry specialists, which could affect their perceptions of this science and discourage them from further study in chemistry. Of those teachers teaching double award chemistry only two-fifths had studied chemistry at degree level or by initial teacher training.  

In this sample, at AS/A2 level, the report finds that 60 per cent of chemistry was taught by those with a degree in chemistry. Around 10 per cent of the time was taught by those who either held no qualification at post-16 level or above in the science or whose highest qualification in chemistry was at A-level.  

According to Libby Steele, manager, professional education and development at the RSC: ‘These data have serious implications for students and for the chemical sciences as a whole. Non-specialist chemistry teachers may not be able to give the broader picture of chemistry by putting the subject in its real context. Add to this that non-specialist teachers lack the confidence to deliver the practical aspects of the subject, and students are missing out on what should be an exciting learning experience’.

According to Dr Tony Ashmore, registrar at the RSC, ‘the Society will be using the evidence from this report to press for a demand-led rather than supply-driven approach to target setting for recruitment into inital teacher training. And, with partners, we will apply for funding under the Gateways to the Professions initiative to develop a substantial programme of INSET to help biologists teach chemistry’.