THE way science is taught in Scottish primary and secondary schools requires a radical shake-up following a damning report on standards, experts have said.

An academic from the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE), Scotland’s national academy of science, called for better qualified teaching staff in primary.

Professor David Cole-Hamilton, from the RSE’s education committee, also warned new standardised literacy and numeracy tests would deflect attention from science.

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Keir Bloomer, an education adviser to the Reform Scotland think tank, went on to criticise the Scottish Government’s recently published strategy on the teaching of science, technology and maths (Stem) subjects.

And he blamed the decline in science on a move to a broad general education in the first three years of secondary under Curriculum for Excellence (CfE).

However, John Swinney, the Education Secretary, defended the government’s approach on teacher training and testing.

Concerns were raised after the publication of the results of the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) in which Scotland’s scores for science declined significantly.

Speaking in a personal capacity, Professor Cole-Hamilton said: “Many primary teachers don’t have a qualification in science and that is absolutely crucial.

“Disappointingly Mr Swinney was asked whether he would prioritise science teaching in the training of primary teachers and he said he wouldn’t.

“That is not consistent with his view that the economy is going to grow through science and technology.”

The professor said the introduction of literacy and numeracy tests would see teachers “teaching to the tests” and ignoring science.

Mr Bloomer called for a rethink on the broad general education, which he said was never an intention of CfE.

He said: “The main weak point in Scottish education was the first two years in secondary where pupils were marking time and the curriculum was fragmented.

“What we have done is continue to do the same thing that we always did in S1 and S2, but have now extended it into S3.”

However, Mr Swinney defended the Stem strategy arguing it was heavily informed by the input of academics, subject specialists and the chief scientific adviser.

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He added: “Primary education has to be about ensuring young people have the strongest foundations in literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing and that the breadth of other curricular areas are satisfactorily covered.

“Science has got to be an integral part of the curriculum and taken forward in that context, but there is a necessity to make sure we concentrate on establishing the very strongest foundations in primary and build on that in secondary.

“The onus is on schools in making choices available.”