1. Call for major science campaign

Comment #79270 by peteymunch on October 16, 2007 at 4:24 pm

I've just come to the end of my degree in physics, so, i've had my own personal experience of the british education system. I can only speak about my own findings, which in terms of schools is a bit outdated. In my school, i know that there was a certain lack of attention payed to those who had any talent in the sciences. They just left people who were going to pass because, as long as they got above a C grade they really didn't care. Revision support was not offered to anywhere near the level of those within the C grade area. As i say, this is just my school, others may be different.

My college physics class had 4 people in it, Maths A-level had a population of 3. The psychology class was roughly 30-40 people and the media class was so big that it is now it's own country (elections are in january).

My mum works at a school, in a science department, in her school the kids are now forced to do courses which are not recognised my colleges (non-gcse qualifications). The reason for this being that they are easier and the school looks better, because of all the A-C grades that they get. They even tell the parents that the qualifications are equivalent to 3 gcses. It's only when their child finishes their course and colleges won't go near their children that the parents realise the garbage they have been fed. So, at the end of the process, you have a child who should have gone to college to do the sciences, now unable to, because the school system let them down. I'm not blaming this on the teachers, because they're left unable to do experiments any more exciting than testing for reducing sugars and have to teach a course which is, at best, mentally unstimulating without their input.

In all, i agree with those who say that there should be more done to allure people towards the charms of science, some of the revelavtions that can be found within the subject can make you look at your whole world differently. More money should be spent, but i think we all know that if you throw money at, what looks to me like, a tumbling foundation, all it will do is buy a little time, rather than irradicating the situation all together.

Sorry if i rambled or if there are any literary faults, but this is my first post, and it's rather late