Professor Dr Fatin Aliah Phang Abdullah FASc is a professor at the Faculty of Educational Sciences and Technology, UTM. In her talk, she will address the pressing issue of declining enrolment in science in Malaysian schools. Although, generally, the culprit is often pointed to students’ interest, she shows that the evidence points otherwise. Using data from international surveys, there is a sharp decline in students’ confidence in learning science as enrolment declines. Students’ confidence in learning science is closely related to how science is taught in schools.