TEN years ago, I was asked to predict what science teaching in schools would look like in 100 years. I replied, somewhat facetiously, that it would look exactly the same as it did 100 years ago: classrooms full of children sat at desks with a teacher in front of them. Today, I would find it much more difficult to be light-hearted about such a question, because I am concerned that the way some students are being taught science is changing.
Around the world, from the to the UK to , a shortage of relevant teachers may . In some places, like my home city of London, the crisis in recruitment and retention means that many students are already having lessons where there is no science teacher. Instead, they are using an online learning platform while a cover teacher watches over them.
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I am a physics teacher; I am not against the use of technology in schools, and this isn鈥檛 an article about how AI will end teaching as we know it. But there are implications for the future of science, and who gets to do it, that we should consider. An of US data found that 鈥渃ommunities that suffer the most from teacher shortages are often low-income and under-resourced鈥�. In the UK, the Sutton Trust educational charity has the shortage of qualified science teachers results in a disproportionately large and detrimental effect on the progression rates of students from families with lower socioeconomic status. If we are concerned about diversity and equity in science, this should perturb us.
The UK鈥檚 Institute of Physics told me there should be around 10,000 teachers in England with a 鈥渂ackground and expertise鈥� in physics, but there are only about 6500. The group 25 years of under-recruitment and high attrition rates and estimates there are up to 500 secondary schools (for those aged 11 to 16) in England without a single specialist physics teacher. I know of schools where the subject has been taught by PE or geography teachers whose best physics qualification was taken at age 16. with the largest numbers of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are least likely to have teachers with relevant science qualifications.
The leader of the UK鈥檚 Labour Party, Keir Starmer, has pledged that a Labour government would 鈥渢ackle the retention crisis鈥� by recruiting 6500 more teachers to subjects with shortages, such as physics. But I fear he is mistaken in his, or anybody鈥檚, ability to do this without making drastic changes to teachers鈥� pay and working conditions.
Teaching is a demanding job with a workload many find unacceptable. It also lacks the flexibility, status and pay of some other graduate roles. In these circumstances, the use of online learning may well offer a better solution than relying on underqualified staff to teach science. The current UK government seems to think so too, pilot schemes of AI-powered teaching resources and work towards 鈥減roviding every teacher with a personalised AI lesson-planning assistant鈥�.
While such resources are becoming more sophisticated, we should be wary of overreliance on them. We mustn鈥檛 allow those with a , such as creators of online learning platforms or those making budget decisions in schools, to minimise the qualities that enthusiastic and dedicated science teachers bring to the classroom, nor the impact such teachers have on students.
Surveys consistently show that many scientists, myself included, credit their teachers as the reason they pursued a career in this field. Let鈥檚 hope that, whatever happens, science education doesn鈥檛 become so impoverished that it deprives future generations of the life-changing experiences that inspired many scientists before them.
Alom Shaha is author of聽Why Don鈥檛 Things Fall聽Up?: And six other science lessons you missed at school
