Sir, The British Centre for Science Education is deeply concerned about the teaching of pseudoscience in place of science in schools in the UK.

We are a new pressure group that aims to keep science and only science in the science classrooms of the UK. In particular, we are alarmed at the launch of a creationist religious group called Truth in Science (report, Sept 29). It is aiming to get creationism taught in science lessons in schools.

Truth in Science recently sent free materials to every school in the UK. We urge teachers to treat this material with extreme caution. It is full of scientific errors and misrepresentations and fails to tell the recipients about the group’s creationist beliefs and objectives. Attempts to deliver this material in a science classroom may confuse children, and could well place their future academic success at risk.

Truth in Science is pushing supernaturalism as a viable alternative to the accepted science regarding the origins and development of life on this planet and established geological knowledge that the Earth is very old.

This is at its heart a theological debate fit for a religious education class, but not a science class.

ROGER STANYARD
Spokesman,
British Centre for Science Education

Sir, We agree with the call for “urgent, concerted action” to stem the decline in the numbers of young people studying science (report, Sept 27). While the new group Score aims to provide a voice from the science community, a similar effort needs to come from Government.

A start has been made by the national network of science learning centres, which are working closely with the National Centre for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics, the Association for Science Education, the DTI-funded Setnet and many others.

What is needed is better co-ordination and less duplication to make best use of funds to enliven science teaching and encourage young people into science.

PROFESSOR JOHN HOLMAN
Centre Director,
National Science Learning Centre, University of York

Sir, There is no better way to alienate pupils from a subject than by making it compulsory.

NICK SHIRES
Head of Physics
St John Baptist High School
Aberdare, Glamorgan

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