August 12, 2008	Tuesday	Sha'aban 9, 1429

LONDON: Britain’s brightest schoolchildren should be required to study three sciences from the age of 14 to counter a shortage in suitably qualified employees, the country’s leading industry body said on Monday.

“Three-fifths of the firms we talk to say they are having trouble recruiting people with skills in science, technology, engineering and maths,” Richard Lambert, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, told BBC radio.

The government has promised that from September all 14-year-olds achieving a Level 6 score in national SATs tests will be entitled to study a triple science GCSE course, covering physics, chemistry and biology.

But the CBI said the 250,000 14-year-olds attaining the required SATS standard should be automatically opted-in for the three-sciences course.

“Some schools lack the specialist physics and chemistry teachers to deliver triple science, so the government would have to phase in the policy,” the CBI said in a statement.

“But we hope that by 2013 all schools should have enough specialist teachers to operate it.”

At present around 40 per cent of 14-year-olds gain the necessary SATs level for triple science, but only seven per cent of students actually take this option.

Instead most study a condensed double or single science course for the GCSE exams taken at age 16, partly because of limited resources at many state-funded schools the number of specialist science teachers has halved over the past 20 years.

The CBI said the wider course was a better preparation for science A-levels, with those who had taken it getting better science A-level grades.

Schools Minister Jim Knight said increasing the number of pupils choosing to study science at university was a top priority for the government but rejected the idea of automatically opting-in pupils.—Reuters