§ Mr. PawseyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on the future of GCSE in physics, chemistry and biology when the national curriculum for science applies to 14 to 16-year-olds from 1992.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeI am today publishing, together with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales,268W a statutory proposal for regulations under section 17 of the Education Reform Act 1988 to allow schools to continue to offer courses in the separate sciences to pupils starting GCSE courses in 1992. The regulations will provide an exception from the requirements of national curriculum science for pupils in that cohort on condition that they are studying courses of study leading to GCSE examinations in all three separate science subjects: physics, chemistry and biology.
There is the option to study the three separate sciences now, and I fully intend that that option should continue to be available, as an alternative to model A or model B combined sciences, when the national curriculum requirements for science apply to pupils aged 14 to 16. However, it has not been possible to produce new syllabuses for physics, chemistry and biology, revised to meet those requirements, in time for pupils starting on their GCSE studies in 1992, though they will be available in 1993. It would clearly be unfair to deny to such pupils a choice open to their forerunners and successors. That is why the exception is necessary: to bridge a gap, for a single cohort of pupils.
I have today asked the National Curriculum Council in England to carry out consultations on the proposals, and comments should be sent to the council by 4 October. My right hon. Friend will initiate consultations in Wales. Copies of the published proposals have been placed in the Library of the House.