Community News Archive
White Paper tackles lack of girls in physics
Institute of Physics
23 February 2005
Lack of girls in physics tackled by 14-19 Education and Skills White Paper
The Institute of Physics welcomes the Government’s recognition of the poor uptake of physics by girls and its commitment to tackle this problem. This was announced today in the White Paper on 14-19 Education and Skills.
Released earlier today, the White Paper says that the Government will “seek to address the particular problem of poor uptake of physics among girls. Working in partnership with the DTI and the Institute of Physics, we will commission research into why girls do not do physics, what can be done in the classroom to change this and the role that Science learning Centres will play”.
Professor Peter Main, Director of Education and Science at the Institute of Physics said: “This year only 23% of A-level physics students were girls, continuing the trend of the falling popularity of the subject for both girls and boys. The Institute of Physics is delighted that DfES will be supporting our work in looking at the different reasons why girls are turned off by physics, and how we can improve the classroom experience to solve some of these issues.”
For more information about the Institute of Physics’ work to encourage more girls to take physics visit: http://www.iop.org/Our_Activities/Encouraging_Diversity/index.html