Triple science - the best option?

The government has announced that all pupils achieving level 6 in their Key Stage 3 science SATS should be entitled to study triple science - biology, chemistry and physics - at GCSE. The reasons include the beliefs that not only will this encourage more pupils to follow STEM subjects - science, technology, engineering and mathematics - at A-level, but that pupils will perform better at A-level as measured by them achieving higher grades. 

Such assumptions are based on an analysis of data collected by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) from the cohorts of pupils who have taken triple science up to now. These were small groups of self-selecting pupils who were really interested in the sciences. So it is surprising in a science education system where the importance of fair testing has been propounded almost to excess, that the Government believes that what has been achieved by this small enthusiastic cohort of pupils can be achieved by a much larger cohort who may or may not be interested in science but their general ability in science is level 6. And this does not allow for the nature of the teachers they will have, ie whether they are subject specialists or not. Nevertheless, to this end the Government has invested heavily in the triple science support programme delivered by the Learning and Skills Network (LSN).