Monday, August 28, 2006

Science in Schools

As I mentioned in my previous post I will be chairing a working group of the Education Committee to see how we can improve science in Barnet's schools.

As the recent news coverage has shown, a lack of teenagers are taking science options at A-Level and then university. This is an important issue because without more science graduates our science industries will suffer and we will have a lack of science teachers in the future therefore making the isssue worse.

This issue was actually brought to my attention about six years ago when I was on the Executive of the University of Birmingham's Guild of Students. I was speaking to the then Vice-Chancellor who mentioned this issue to me. Since then I have considered it an important issue and I wanted to try and find some possible solution to it as a councillor.

Therefore I hope as a Council we can help to make a difference in Barnet and show that Councils can make real differences on issues like this.

In Barnet we have excellent schools and high achieving pupils, therefore if pupils here are not being taught science as well as it could be, and so that it is not enjoyed thus encouraging more students to study it further, what chance has Britain got. Therefore, we really need to sort this issue out in Barnet not just for the sake of Barnet but for the country as a whole.

No comments: