To hell in a handcart....

You'd have to try pretty hard to avoid the doom and gloom that is coming
out of the UK media about Physics at secondary and tertiary level at the
moment.

Barely a week goes by without something deeply worrying for the subject coming out: here's a selection from the past few months from the BBC Education section of their website:

• Physics Teacher Shortage warning
• Most maths teacher 'not experts'
• Maths exams 'have become easier'
• Maths teacher gap 'to worsen'

And it is not much better over at the Guardian, either:

• Physics teachers dying out in some state schools
• Science students lack basic skills

... and so on. It doesn't make for happy reading. Why are more people not jumping up and down about this? I was preparing some slides earlier this week for a talk soon after I get to UBC; it paints a rather depressing picture that when you see all the pieces of, it is striking the point that things have got to. I think most people in Physics departments in the UK vaguely know about this on some level, but I guess would prefer not to have to think about. 'Surely someone else will solve these problems....?' I don't think that they will.