From a Royal Society of Chemistry press release today (27 November): Armed with the first hard evidence of a catastrophic slippage in school science examinations standards, the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) has launched a Downing Street e-petition calling for urgent intervention to halt the slide.
And tomorrow morning a devastating RSC report demolishing the myth of record-breaking science education performance will land on the desks of all Members of Parliament.
The RSC report, also being supplied to industrialists and educationalists, raises major concerns over the disappearance from schools science examinations of vital problem-solving, critical thinking and mathematical manipulation.
Dr Richard Pike, chief executive of the RSC said: “The target of our campaign is a failed education system, not the youngsters it’s supposed to serve.”
If you want to sign the petition, please go here.
See also this Guardian article, ‘Pupils of today struggle with science questions of the 60s’, and this Times article, ‘Dumbing down of exams leaves students unable to deal with real problems’.