The time bomb that is science in British schools by Gail Dixon
�Recently my stepdaughter was at the end of an English lesson and the teacher asked what she had next. When mathematics was mentioned, the teacher indicated that maths was a tough subject and not really what a person doing English should be studying.� This anecdote from Professor Peter Main, director of education and science at the Institute of Physics (IOP), points to the existence of a worryingly archaic attitude in British schools.

The perception that �boys do maths and science, and girls do humanities and arts� is one that most people would scoff at today, but research into the options chosen by boys and girls at 13 suggests that gender-stereotyping still exists in schools and is narrowing the career options of thousands of teenagers.

Worryingly, recent tests have shown that that teenage girls in Britain are lagging further behind boys in science than anywhere else in the Western World. A s ... Read more »