Ain't this the ideal way to improve social cohesion? Pupils in independent schools get a sound, thorough education which really does equip them for the 'real' world. Pupils in state schools - however bright they are - get a rubbish education based on half-baked and unworkable theories.

I utterly despair. The educational lunatics aren't just running the asylum, they're running the entire country.

Nesta, Cambridge, UK

The trouble is governments set up bodies such as this Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, which then have continually to churn out this sort of nonsense to justify their existence. As usual the guinea pigs will suffer and the perpetrators, along with those who accept this witless trash, will move onwards and probably upwards in their cocoon of mediocrity.

Elwyn Williams, Nuneaton, UK

I'm coming to the end of my first GCSE year, and so doing the new science specifications. I'm taking all three 'pure' sciences, and it is a shambles. To be honest the work that we are doing, I expect the second years to be doing. Not us lower fifth-formers! Yes my school is incredibly academic girls' school, we are talking top ten here. But I am sure the majority of students are finding these courses easy and a joke.

The Government are making a mockery of the education sysytem. I was going to take my 5 A-Levels, but to be honest I am willing to change schools so that I can do the International Baccalaureate. I feel that it is the only exam scheme that will actually test me, and that I will be proud of my results.

Chloe, London,

As a 17 year old just having completed my AS levels and therefore having done the GCSEs not too long ago, I feel pretty well placed to say that no teenager is going to find sitting around in a group discussing how awful SUVs are like a bunch of tree hugging hippies any more interesting than actually doing real work. Luckily, being in private education, and with only a year left in school, I don't have to worry anymore about the government cocking up my education. It is sad to see though that these measures are being brought in and all they are going to do is accept academic failure as something "that can happen to anyone" and increase the already large division between quality of education between the state and private sectors. State must create the same results-driven, competative culture as the private schools to get good results, not cater for the lazy and underachieving by dumbing down subjects to discussions about in vogue subjects

Rob, Madrid,

I taught Physics in comprehensive schools for twenty five years. At first there was an 'opt in' choice for fourteen year olds which led to challenging and exciting courses leading ultimately to A levels and University. I also helped to develop less rigorous but none the less worthwhile Science courses for pupils who were not academic. That system has been utterly destroyed. Bright kids no longer face proper conceptual challenges; the option of teacher designed courses to suit the needs of the less academic has also been destroyed. National curriculum, one size fits all: this thing has been a disaster from first to last. Those Universities which retain Science and Engineering departments will need to start their first year courses somewhere around the old O level standard if their students are to develop into practising Scientists, Engineers or Medics. People who can afford a private sector education for their kids should make that commitment.

Geoff Sargent, Cardiff, UK

Quite right. School lessons should be built around the needs of pupils.

They do not need this obsolete nonsense. I once taught in a secondary school where it was imposed. The children learned very little. No real science was taught, History and Geography were merged with English into "Humanities" and lessons were (as the proposed projects on global warming will be) merely indoctrination in currently fashionable politics.

We fail our children if we do not challenge them with tough learning. The world they live in, the world of nature, does not deal softly with incompetence. Re-read T.H. Huxley's defence of hard science as a necessary part of the curriculum. It is no less valid now.

Science cannot usefully be evidence-free. It has traditionally been taught as three disciplines because experience has shown that this is the easiest way to help beginners master the idea of facts, evidence and methodology. English and Maths also provide vital skills for life.

Wake up, Waters!

Michael Bruce, Selby, Yorkshire

I am from Victoria and what is being proposed is madness. Thanks to our State Labor Government, we have just got rid of what was called Studies of Society and the Environment, a horrible mess introduced to our state by the previous Liberal (in UK terms, Conservative) Government and returned to traditional academic disciplines like history and geography. Dr Ken Rowe, of the Australian Council for Educational Research, has pointed out that there are 500,000 studies that show students learn best when they are actually taught. It is not that there is no place for projects or enquiry-learning or links between subjects; it’s just that none of these is as important as basic instruction in the discrete fields of human knowledge that have been refined over the past several thousand years.

If you want to improve UK education, you should get rid of the huge classes that you have and adopt Victorian class sizes – 21 pupils in years prep to 2, below 30 in years 3-6, and 25 in years 7-12.

Chris Curtis, Hurstbridge, Australia

There is most certainly a problem with a proportion of pupils who do the same topics time and time again and get bored with it. The reason for this repetition, in my view, is that the level of learning first time round was not suffucient. As a teacher attempting to return to the classroom I am cofronted with bored pupils refusing to do the work set because they have done it every year since year seven and have not ever enjoyed it, and they are failing learners at the bottom end of the school. However in supply teaching sometimes you do get top sets in orderly schools and you notice that they are happy learning in the traditional way, they ask questions they listen and they try.
We do have extreme problems in some schools where pupils behave like monkeys in a zoo, fighting each other trying to detroy the electronic white board, glueing the windows and threatening strangers such as me, with whom they have not yet even spoken. The solution is NOT project based work for everbody.

fionab, plymouth,

This makes me so, so sad. I am about to quit my job in the CIty to become a secondary biology teacher. I want to teach science and make students enthusiastic about science. Constantly watering down the curriculum with half-baked ideas like this almost make me despair before I've even started...I only hope that many schools don't fall for this nonsense and continue with the "traditional" approach. It worked for my grandparents, it worked for my parents, it worked for me. Why do this Government and its "advisors" consistently have to meddle and fix what ain't broke ?

GS, London, UK

I am from Victoria and what is being proposed is madness. Thanks to our State Labor Government, we have just got rid of what was called Studies of Society and the Environment, a horrible mess introduced to our state by the previous Liberal (in UK terms, Conservative) Government and returned to traditional academic disciplines like history and geography. Dr Ken Rowe, of the Australian Council for Educational Research, has pointed out that there are 500,000 studies that show students learn best when they are actually taught. It is not that there is no place for projects or enquiry-learning or links between subjects; it’s just that none of these is as important as basic instruction in the discrete fields of human knowledge that have been refined over the past several thousand years.

If you want to improve UK education, you should get rid of the huge classes that you have and adopt Victorian class sizes – 21 pupils in years prep to 2, below 30 in years 3-6, and 25 in years 7-12.

Chris Curtis, Hurstbridge, Australia

My blood ran cold when I read the article.

My son is at a school where this cross-curricular approach was tried. On paper it sounded great. In practice it was a mess.

Two years on it's been abandoned for more traditional lessons and the kids that lost out in their first two years had to receive intensive remedial teaching as the KS3 SATs approached.

There is no point the QCA building castles in the air because - as has already been pointed out - such castles aren't built on a firm foundation.

Cross-curricular projects can add spice to an otherwise bland diet. They are not an adequate diet by themselves.

teresa meyer, london, uk

There is no scientific evidence that any of this is safe, nor that it will work.
It would be utterly irresponsible to adopt it.
Think about the expensive lawsuits, when the guinea pigs realise the harm it has done to their job prospects.
Then bin it.

DrC, Royston, UK

Is there no limit to what measures the education authorities will go to boost the exam pass rate.
When these children apply for a job in the employment market how impressive is it going to look to a prospective employer if they put down an 'A level' in a 'Mickey Mouse' subject.
Slough Technical College (now Thames Valley University) once taught a degree course in KITE FLYING. Where are those graduates today?
Thank goodness Polish immigrants are coming to England to take the important jobs - British school leavers can't all work for McDonalds.

G J BUNTON, SLOUGH, BERKSHIRE

The new science specifications are indeed 'fit only for the pub'. In Chemistry there is virtually no practical work involved and the academic content can be taught in a matter of hours not weeks. 'A' Level uptake and quality will inevitably suffer. My belief is that it is a case of 'The Emperors Clothes' all over again, no-one dares to stand up and say how bad it really is.

G. Payton, Gloucester,

When Eton rugby and Harrow do it then the state schools should do it. The "idea" is mad dumbing down the plebs, that is all it is. We have had something similar here in West Australia it is a disaster. Mind you the fools in charge say how good it is because the stuidents have the right attitude. What ever that is!

Philip Crooks, Perth, Australia

As a physics teacher who has moved from the state to the independent sector, I can now teach the IGCSE and IB Physics courses which contain far more physics than the new GCSE and AS/A2 courses. The government will not allow state schools to do the IGCSE (supposedly it doesn't cover the national curriculim objectives - but it is far superior to some of the new GCSE specifications!)

However ,whilst I enjoy the advantage of this, we are in serious danger of increasing the polarisation between the state and independent sectors to such an extent that the vast majority of physicists and chemists will only come from this sector (as has happened for Classics). As the product of a good state school education I find this alarming!

The drive to dumb down science is believed by a large number of physics teachers to stem from a lack of physics specialists. Please join me in signing the petition to Downing Street.

Dr Andy Davies, oakham, rutland

Balderdash!

If someone studies science and emerges ignorant of something as basic as the periodic table then time and taxpayers' money has been wasted on producing a moron!

And soon we will have the morons leading the morons - or are we there already?

Bill McCann, Suzhou, China

My school combined history, geography and citizenship, and its new title is 'Learning to Learn' (or 'L2L', school thinks we'll be more welcoming to something in txt talk). When my friends and I would walk past one of these rooms (I refuse to call them lessons) we would sneer and say that it's a stupid idea.

It doesn't give students enough knowledge to undertake the subjects at a higher level. Universities do not offer L2L degrees, so why teach them that way?

I took AS History, and can say that it is so demanding that the GCSE and KS3 course (competently taught by an engaging and interesting teacher) was insufficient to completely prepare me. How students of L2L will cope I have no idea.

There are very few teachers equipped to teach history, geography and citizenship to a sufficient standard. This is because the subjects are so diverse: geography a science, history an art and citizenship a wooly governmental idea. Someone who has trained in one is unlikely to enjoy the others

Nick, Leeds, UK

And now the failed touchy-feely educational establishment want to serve up a junk food, nutrition-like diet they claim would be a "nourishing and appetising feast". That is like a chef earning points for "presentation" by makng a greasy burger and chips look good.

No, just as the most beautiful home must be built on a sound foundation, so must the adults and the leaders of tomorrow be provided with the fundamental building blocks of a sound education. It is the only responsible way to prepare them for their future.

Bob Evans, Anaheim, California

The trouble i have with the governments reasoning for this "topical" style learning is that its rubbish!!
The fact that they try and state that they need a practical reason for using the Periodic table... the periodic table is the practical reason for everything we are and everything we use...
A pupil that does not want to attend a Chemistry lesson because it is uninspiring is hardly going to want to attend a rebranded lesson of "Poloution"...

oli cooper, Derbyshire ,

In education, if you stand still long enough, you become an innovator.

Richard, Warwick, UK

It is frightening to see what educationalists are suggesting for our children - the future of this country. Dont let this happen, how can teachers agree to this nonsense?
1984 is really here.
Our children will be mere puppets with minds ready for any propganda the Government wants to direct to them.
This is a major disaster and I hope everyone, including the media wakes up - or is it so liberal-left that it cant make up tis mind to care for the future of this counrty and our children?
Every child has some ability that needs to be developed and with good, dedicated teachers it is possible. The trouble is we have too few well trained teachers with a vocation for teaching. Too many of our teachers think of their work as a 9-4 job with long holidays to enjoy
Laura Philbrook, East Sussex

Laura MayJoy Philbrook, Pevensey, East Sussex

A small number of people who sit around and agree with each other that they know better than decades and centuries of experience, practical application and results.

Bill, belfast, N.I.

"I, like many others, had a boring uninspiring secondary education and witnessed many children turned off education as much of what we were taught was not embedded in reality "

And I, for one, don't care. The purpose of our education system is to equip children with knowledge to go forward and prosper as adults. Throughout the history of the education system there have been kids (and their parents) who were not equipped to succeed in such an education system (and there always will be).

The difference in the past was that we didn't tailor the entire education system to the needs of the children (and their parents) who were unable to grasp the concept. In the past we focused on those children who were educatable. Now we operate babysitting services and turn out semi-or-illiterate and semi-or-innumerate drones.

John A Blackley, Kilbirnie, Scotland

As a Physics teacher, I can choose to (and do) teach beyond the government's GCSE specifications. Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly the case that there is not a physicist on the staff of a school and the GCSE with reduced content along with weak assessment will lead to a reduction in the understanding that students have when they complete Physics courses. Removing physics content is a quick fix to enable schools to continue to deliver the national curriculum without specialist staff.

Potentially bright Engineers and Physicists of the future will be switched off these careers by the science in society courses that the government is trying to replace physics with.

Please take the time to sign the petition in support of maintaining high standards of science and physics education. in our schools.

Dr Andrew Davies, Oakham, UK/Rutland

Project-based learning is the sort of thing that is very hard to make work. Children are tempermentally unsuited to long projects - how many young novelists get beyond the first chapter? - and you also have the problem of what to do with those whose projects fail.

Having said that, if you have enthusiastic, committed staff, and a school that is essentially under control, then there is nothing wrong with trying a few new ideas, such as a themed month built around global warming. The important thing is to do it in small doses, until you really understand the problems as well as the benefits.

Malcolm McLean, Bradford, UK

Schools seem to be turning into nothing more than brainwashing camps to ensure that future voters are as uneducated as possible, thereby ensuring the political status quo.

Simon, Aberdeen,

Political indoctrination masquerading as education

sandy, n ayrshire,

Hurray! Finally Secondary Education is getting the shake up it has needed for so long.
I have been teaching in Primary education for several years, and yes, the 'topic' approach has had its teething problems. Initially some content was lost but now we use a combination of teaching the 'academic' parts of a subject, for example grammar, alongside topics where they children can see how this fits in to real life.
I, like many others, had a boring uninspiring secondary education and witnessed many children turned off education as much of what we were taught was not embedded in reality - we just couldn't see the point of learning the Periodic Table and so it didn't remain stuck in our minds.
So to all those Secondary teachers out there - don't panic, you can make this work and improve behaviour, attendance and learning. And remember, the QCA is only providing a model with which to work - it is not set in stone.

Rachel Clements, Norwich, Norfolk

Seems to be hallmark Bliar blurring!

Perry , Hull,

Well done, Geraldine. Since it tried to replace literacy with media studies in the early years of New Labour, the QCA has an agenda of its own, which is out of line with professional and public opinion. Most of its work is not even basically competent, and it badly needs to be brought under control.

John Bald, Linton, CAMBS

This is not such a new idea. Several years ago whilst teaching Structural Mechanics on a Construction Industry Technician's course I asked if any student had taken Physics as a single science at GCSE.
One chap replied 'OI done physics surr - we done a project on windmills.'
Now there is a lot of Physics in the construction and operation of windmills but that was hardly the answer that I was expecting. The educationalists obviously still do not appreciate that general knowledge science is inadequate in the training of engineers for the future.

F. Whitehead, St. Sulpice , France

Its a joke! It is, isn't it?

Constantinople_1453, Hastings, England

I hire people for my company.

The level of basic understanding and basic science and math principles I see in candidates for jobs ranging from £25k to £55k is alarming.

I only see true knowledge in people 45 plus so what has happened. I despair for our nation as we are producing pub quiz politically correct citizens who fundementally have little grasp of the subjects that have driven our nation forward i.e. a fundemental grasp of math,science and English.

Its time to leave I think.

E . PENDLEBURY, ROPLEY, HAMPSHIRE

I am so glad my British passport isn't the only one I've got. Who's going to cover my pension here when we have no scientists, no engineers, no manufacturers, no mathematicians and no-one capable of writing English? I was able to afford school fees so that my own children could have an education as good as the one I got free in a grammar school in the Fifties. Pity the children who have to rely on our half-witted state. They have no chance.

John Lynch, Whittington, UK