The natural history GCSE has been shelved because it is “seen as a Conservative party initiative”, one of the architects of the proposed new qualification has said.
The conservationist and campaigner Mary Colwell told the Guardian she was “hugely frustrated” with the halt to the proposed new GCSE, which had been announced in 2022 and was supposed to be taught in schools by 2025.
Colwell, along with the former Green MP Caroline Lucas and Tim Oates from Cambridge University Press & Assessment, had been working with the OCR exam board to create the GCSE. Her campaign has been going since 2011, and the former Conservative government agreed to implement the GCSE in 2022 as part of its climate change and sustainability strategy.
The then education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, said at the time the new qualification would give young people “a chance to develop a deeper knowledge and understanding” of the environment and “how we can come together to conserve it”.
Announcing the GCSE, the Conservative government said the qualification would enable young people to explore the world by learning about organisms and environments, environmental and sustainability issues, and gain a deeper knowledge of the natural world around them. It said they would also develop the skills to help them carve a future career in the natural world if they wished.
The qualification had gone through most of the policy process by the time of the general election and was due to go out for public consultation, which is the final stage before a policy is put in place. However, the campaigners have been told the GCSE is now on hold indefinitely.
“Now it’s sitting in limbo,” Colwell said. “We’ve been saying to Labour it’s there, it’s ready, it’s a very popular thing you could do. The message we have got in response is that it is seen as a Conservative party initiative so has to be reassessed.”
Officials in the Department for Education said on Monday the GCSE could be reassessed as part of a wider curriculum review but Colwell said “this could take years, it’s a huge piece of work”.
She disputed the idea that the GCSE was a “Conservative initiative”, adding: “I am the person who campaigned for it for years along with Caroline Lucas and Tim Oates. It happened despite the Conservatives. It had cross-party, cross-nation support, support from young people. That’s why it is so incredibly frustrating. We are ramping up the campaign again to say ‘just do it’. Nature can’t afford to be a political football. We need future generations to understand or care for the natural world.”
Colwell said disadvantaged children would benefit most from the GCSE and that it was important to put it in place sooner rather than later: “We need nature education at the heart of school life so everyone has access to it, not just middle-class people who go to the countryside at the weekend and have big gardens. It’s the kids in very urban areas who I had in mind because the whole idea of the GCSE is to make natural history on your doorstep something you are fascinated by. We have such a crisis in the mental health of our young people and nature is known to be a very healing thing.”
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Jen Davis, from the Wildlife Trusts, said: “There’s a deeper challenge to tackle here, and a need to reinvigorate this new government about the importance of bringing nature, climate and sustainability closer to children’s lives through education. The importance of building a lasting, personal connection with nature to inform our future actions and decision-making cannot be overstated.
“Caring deeply for the future of the natural world is different to simply understanding the mechanics of it. So perhaps this is where the difference can be made – if qualifications could also influence how we feel about something, and crucially, teach us about the different roles we can play to make a positive difference.”
The Department for Education has been contacted for comment.
