SIR, — Many university and school teachers of science will agree with
much of what your contributor, Stephen Toulmin, has to say on the subject of Doing With Fewer Science Teachers '; and it may be hoped that the Committee of Investigation into the subject of science teachers in schools, now announced will find some realisable solution to this difficult and urgent problem.
I write without statistics before me; but I very much doubt if the percentage of pros- pectively first-class science teachers has changed much in recent years. In my depart- ment at King's College, London, we have found since 1946 that not more than two out of twenty or so students graduating each year have any enthusiasm for teaching science in schools. It is rare, in fact, to find students who appear to have both the intellectual abilities and personal attributes required. One is forced to the inevitable conclusion that many of those who took up science teaching before the war were not really suited to the profession, but took it up because it provided a reasonable career. The educationists should give some attention to the problem of attract-
J. T. RANDALL
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