CBI warns of science slump

The CBI today warned that too many young people are turning their back on science and technology because of faults in the education system.

According to the CBI, thousands of potential scientists are being lost because of a stripped-down science curriculum, a lack of specialist teachers and uninspiring careers advice.

Consequently the UK's world-class science base is being eroded at a time when new international competitors are emerging and traditional rivals are getting stronger, the CBI said.

The problems begin in secondary school and reverberate up the education system to such an extent that the number of A level pupils studying physics has fallen 56 per cent in 20 years. Over the same period those studying A level chemistry has dropped 37 per cent.

And over the last decade the number of graduates who leave university with a degree in physics, engineering or technology has slumped, as a proportion of the whole, by a third: only 32,000 undergraduates qualified in these subjects last year.