Science Education - Have We Overlooked What We Are Good At?

03 September 2013

Education is vital to the UK's economic prosperity, especially science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. As our engineering and science industries turn over approximately £257bn a year (CBI, 2010), the stakes are too high to risk damaging our science education system.

The government's proposed reforms to GCSE science are intended to ensure that England's science provision pre-16 is challenging and that it produces young people with the skills needed for future economic success. NFER warns that in implementing these reforms we may overlook many of the successful features of our existing science provision, and may be too quick to 'borrow' international policy solutions from other countries. We argue for a scientific approach to the reform of our science curriculum.