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The government’s plan for an “entitlement” to triple science at GCSE has been criticised by subject experts, who warn that the move will put additional pressure on already stretched schools and teachers.

The curriculum and assessment review, published on Tuesday evening, says the government should ensure that any student who wants to study triple science, rather than combined science, can do so.

The Department for Education accepted this “entitlement”, to the review: “We believe that all pupils who can benefit from studying triple science should have the opportunity to do so.”

Shortage of science teachers

However, experts warn that the plan will require significant investment in teacher training and retention to ensure that schools can deliver the new curriculum effectively.

Jack Worth, education workforce lead at the National Foundation for Educational Research, said that expanding access to triple science was a “welcome ambition”. But he added that “without urgent action to boost teacher supply, plans to increase triple science provision risk being unworkable in practice”.

Recruitment issues were a particular problem for disadvantaged schools, which “often struggle to attract teachers in shortage subjects”, he said.

“Expanding provision without more specialist teachers could widen attainment gaps,” he warned.

He also said that the focus on triple science would mean that students would have less capacity to study other subjects.

Tom Grinyer, CEO of the Institute of Physics, said that the entitlement is an “important and necessary step which is good for science” but warned that “the elephant in the room is the chronic shortage of specialist physics teachers in our schools”.

“A quarter of state schools are left without a specialist physics teacher and too many students are being taught physics by a non-specialist, even up to GCSE,” he said, adding: “The curriculum reforms must go hand in hand with concerted effort to retain, recruit and retrain a generation of physics teachers.”

The most recent DfE data from the 2024-25 academic year shows that nearly half of GCSE physics lessons (44.7 per cent) were taught by a teacher lacking a relevant post-A-level qualification in the subject.

For chemistry and biology, the figures were 28.2 per cent and 12.2 per cent respectively.

For all three subjects, the picture has worsened compared with four years ago.

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Meanwhile, recruitment into physics and chemistry teaching has remained poor. In the 2024-25 academic year, the government missed its physics initial teacher training recruitment target by 69 per cent.

The chemistry target was also missed by 38 per cent, while recruitment for biology was 19 per cent above the government’s target.

The recruitment target for physics has been missed by at least 60 per cent in the past five years, and the chemistry target was only met in 2021-22.

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Mr Grinyer added that the review had ignored teachers’ “fundamental concerns”, particularly that the current physics curriculum is “overloaded and crowds out opportunities for deeper and more meaningful learning”.

Practical difficulties

The Royal Society of Chemistry also pointed to severe teacher shortages. In its most recent science teaching survey, 32 per cent of respondents in England reported being understaffed in chemistry.

Laura Daly, education policy programme manager at the society, said: “Without a robust workforce plan, there’s a real risk that schools will be forced to make compromises and substitutions in sciences.

“Bursaries for chemistry and physics are currently at a good level, but the recent cut to biology bursaries undermines the broader Stem [science, technology, engineering and maths] pipeline. We would like to see this decision reversed.

“Retention of science specialists must be addressed - and this will require the government addressing issues around workload, work-life balance and stress. If we want to expand access to triple science, we need to keep the teachers who make it possible.”

As well as highlighting recruitment concerns, Ms Daly added there will also be practical difficulties for schools, which will now need to consider lab space, equipment and the cost of delivering additional content and practical work.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that while the union is supportive of the idea in principle, it faced “severe difficulties”, including the “dire” recruitment of physics teachers into postgraduate ITT.

The DfE’s response to the curriculum review said that to make the change “a reality”, it would “work with schools to understand the barriers to entry for triple science, including workforce challenges, and support schools to develop a triple science offer, ahead of introducing a statutory entitlement”.

It said it would also continue to tackle physics teacher shortages through the Subject Knowledge for Physics Teaching programme, which aims to improve non-specialist teachers’ subject knowledge and pedagogical skills.

����Vlog contacted the DfE for comment on the criticisms from subject experts.

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