---
title: "Science education in England"
chunk: 12/14
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_education_in_England"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:21:10.973540+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== Pre-university level ===
The challenges of establishing a national curriculum for science below university level in England over the last two centuries have been explored by Smith (2010) and others. In Smith's paper, she highlighted two potentially conflicting roles for science education below university level: educating a public to be scientifically literate, and providing scientific training for aspiring science professionals. Smith further pointed out in her paper that even among the training of aspiring science professionals, three groups could be identified: those that sought science in pursuance of the truth and an abstract understanding of science; those that sought science for actual benefit to society—the applied scientists, and then the failures. The dilemma did not escape the committee led by J J Thomson (discoverer of the electron) in 1918, which is quite telling of the tension in trying to accommodate several very different groups of science learners:

In framing a course in Science for boys up to the age of 16 it should be recognised that for many this will be the main, for some the only, opportunity of obtaining a knowledge of Science, and that the course should therefore be self-contained, and designed so as to give special attention to those natural phenomena which are matters of everyday experience, in fine, that the Science taught in it should be kept as closely connected with human interests as possible.
(Report by Thomson Committee, 1918: p23)
Such tension has never really dissipated. In a report by the Royal Society from 2008, they state several challenges facing science education; the first two are reproduced here:
The first:

provide science and mathematics education appropriate for students of all levels of attainment in an environment where more students remain in education post-16;
and the second: 

give a solid core grounding in science and mathematics to those who will probably not continue studying these subjects post-16;
(Report by the Royal Society, 2008: p17)
A lack of good quality teachers has also been cited as a challenge. Difficulty recruiting science teachers, which is a current problem in England (and the UK as a whole) is certainly not new as the following extract from the report by the Thomson Committee in 1918 shows:

The first and indispensable condition for any real improvement in the teaching of Science in schools of all kinds is that effective steps should be taken to secure an adequate supply of properly qualified teachers. The supply is inadequate for existing needs ...
(Report by Thomson Committee, 1918: p31)

==== Figures from the 1918 report ====
Some interesting figures were quoted in the 1918 report: for instance on page 31 of the report: out of 72 schools that had 200–400 girls of all ages, only 39 had the services of two science teachers (mistresses). The report went on state that these figures had contributed to long hours and inadequate salaries. This sounds strikingly similar to the situation facing science (and indeed all) school teachers in England today, more than a hundred years later. Another challenge was that there was not an appreciation by the political elite on the value of a science education to the wider public; even though England was producing some of the greatest scientists in the world. Yet another challenge was that public schools (historic private schools) were slow to respond to the needs of developing a science curriculum. For example, William Sharp was the first science teacher at Rugby School, a prestigious public school in England, which only happened for the first time in 1847, nearly 300 years after the school was established, and more than 100 years after England had lost one of the world's greatest scientists: Isaac Newton.

==== 20th century developments ====
Despite these challenges, a science curriculum and education developed through the 20th century, and eventually became a compulsory part of the new National Curriculum in 1988 (phased in from 1989 to 1992). Even at the time of the deliberations in the mid-1980s before the creation of the National Curriculum, there was disagreement over how much time science should occupy in the curriculum. There was pressure for science to be made to occupy 20% of curriculum time for 14–16-year-olds, but not everyone agreed with this, certainly not the then Secretary of State for Education and Science, Kenneth Baker. The then Department for Education and Science settled for 12.5% of curriculum time, but schools were free to increase this. The result was the emergence of:

single science (which occupied 10% of curriculum time and was the minimum requirement—also called core science),
double science (which occupied 20% of curriculum time, and was so called because it involved studying core science and additional science)
the option to teach physics, chemistry, and biology separately (also known as 'triple' science).

==== 21st century developments ====
Following the changes to the National Curriculum in the 2010s, single science has effectively been removed from most GCSE specifications, and the two components of double science have been combined to form "combined science", which is now the minimum requirement although CCEA GCSE still retains single and double science. As for IGCSEs, the National Curriculum was never designed for them; hence, IGCSEs (like CCEA GCSEs) still retain the single and double (or their respective alternative) categories of science.