UK science education should heed England World Cup failures

UK science education should learn from English World Cup football failures, says the chief executive of the body responsible for the future of British chemistry.

Using a large proportion of overseas players in UK football makes for an entertaining domestic game, which profits individual clubs, but it paves the way to a dismal England performance internationally and Dr Richard Pike of the Royal Society of Chemistry says the country should be aware of the same thing happening to science.

He claims that unless there is clearer strategic thinking the similar trend of importing science graduates will damage the performance of Britain in the world arena. 

The root of the problem is basic skills at A level when students are being directed away from difficult subjects to improve schools' rankings by performance.

Dr Pike said: "The use of school league tables is damaging UK science because of the unintended consequence of treating education simplistically as a market commodity. "

He said that although mathematics at A Level remains relatively popular in comparison to many other subjects, it underpins numerous disciplines at university  such as chemistry, physics, engineering, economics and mathematics, itself, and there are therefore in practice too few grade As and Bs to fully support this important sector.

"Mathematics is increasingly considered difficult, and schools are encouraging prospective scientists who are unlikely to get an A or B at A Level in mathematics to take easier alternatives.

By getting high grades in one of these, as well as chemistry and physics or biology, two important objectives are fulfilled. The school enhances its position in the league table, and the student receives the high overall rating needed in an increasingly devalued grading system.

He added: "The consequence is that university science courses have to run remedial mathematics lessons for students who in some cases have not advanced beyond GCSE in the subject. Failure to educate in the secondary sector is therefore being transferred as a major issue in the tertiary sector, unnecessarily tying up time and resources. If university teachers of science courses insist on mathematics A Level, they know that applicant numbers will fall dramatically."

This should be seen in the context of other countries, where in the case of China, for example, all students wanting to take a science subject at university have to study mathematics at school up to the age of 18 or 19. Furthermore, .the bachelor's degree is then four years, as in many places elsewhere, compared with three years in this country. 

Dr Pike added: "It is little wonder that in the UK many research institutes and companies now recruit an increasing number of overseas graduates because they cannot find enough home-grown candidates with the right skills."

He believed that the best from UK universities are still regarded very highly, but there is a long 'tail' that causes concern. Some economists suggest that this should not be a problem. Let companies buy skills from the world market, and supply and demand will adjust, like any other commodity. 

"True, individual companies flourish under such circumstances, but what of the overall science base of the country that inspires curiosity, innovation, networking and a challenging of the status quo in the wider sense? That will decline, and taken to an extreme we risk becoming a tourist destination with indifferent services, with oasis-like pockets of high technology that the majority of the population cannot understand. 

"This is the very position that many developing countries find themselves in, and what are they doing about it? Why, expanding their scientific education and embarking on 'localisation' so that technology can be embedded more effectively into the population!"

In practice, there must be a healthy balance between indigenous and imported skills, which looks beyond simple market economics. This requires real strategic thinking and effective implementation, and the time is ripe for such a review within the UK. In a more topical sense close to home, there can be no better example of simplistic market forces distorting the skills base than in the Premiership. 

"Clubs buy and sell football players from all over the world, and the best teams are extremely profitable. The national team drawn from the local skills base, however, has not won a trophy for forty years. We need something better for education," he added.