The last week has been a busy one in the world of science education with the release of results from the 2006 PISA science survey.

The UK has slipped 10 places which is a complete contradiction to the government's view that education standards are rising.

As expected the media have had a field day, starting with the Independent who were more than happy to rub salt in the wound by mentioning England's recent fall from 3rd to 15th (out of 47 countries) in reading standards.

The Guardian followed up with an article expressing concern on school text books, with a rather disturbing quote from one science text book author, claiming he  "was told to write a factually incorrect answer because the mistake had been made in the curriculum and the book had to match."

So why the drop?  Well last week I mentioned the fact that pupils are being taught by non specialists due to a shortage of Physicists and Chemists entering education, hell I know of at least one school that has PE staff teaching ecology to pupils.

Secondly there seems to be a combination of low expectations, political engineering and a lack of proof reading when setting exam questions. The Times printed a physics paper by EDEXCEL a couple of months ago along with the answers and to be quite frank it would seem like some of the questions were set by someone half way through a drugs binge. Take a look at the paper yourself and see if you can spot the mistakes before clicking here for an entertaining post mortem. Question 7 is a prime example of a political question in place of a science question, a little worrying given the hostile reaction to biometric ID cards and the government’s insistence on pushing them through.

Is it any wonder that the independent sector have chosen to abandon the GCSE and AS/A-Level in favour of the IGCSE and IB?

UPDATE ON WiFi SCARE: Panorama recieved as well deserved slapping from the BBC  last week following complaints about their doctumentary on the evils of WiFi. Total result!