Narrowing the curriculum benefits no one

Nobel Prize-winning scientist Venki Ramakrishnan knows more than most about the benefits of studying a variety of subjects. Although his award in 2009 was for his groundbreaking work in chemistry, he initially went to university to study physics before switching to biology – the strand of science he now concentrates on. Meanwhile, his son, Raman, was set to follow his father into a career in science, before deciding to become a concert cellist.So when Ramakrishnan says that the curriculum in UK schools is far too narrow for our pupils, he approaches the subject with more than a degree of authority. He believes the “siloing” of education, where pupils only focus on a narrow range of subjects that they are best at, will limit the ability of future generations to cope with the rapidly changing world they are going to have to navigate. To counterbalance this, he proposes that all science students should study history and languages, while humanities students should learn a certain amount of science.It is clear, now more than ever, that the adult population needs as wide an education as possible. Scientists should be equipped with the ability to detect fake news through their studies of close reading in English, while accountants should be able to understand the terminology of climate change from what they learned in geography.