The Department for Education has announced that a new GCSE in Natural History, dubbed ‘Climate Change GCSE,’ will be launched in 2025. The GCSE will aim to teach students ‘how to conserve the planet.’
Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said ‘The new natural history GCSE will offer young people a chance to develop a deeper knowledge and understanding of this amazing planet, its environment and how to conserve it.’ Although the full course outline has not yet been developed, the Department of Education has announced the new GCSE will teach students ‘to explore the world by learning about organisms and environments, environmental and sustainability issues.’
Although this specific GCSE is new, it is not the first to teach pupils about sustainability and the environment. A wide range of GCSEs, including Biology, Geography, and Textiles touch on these issues, but the new Natural History course will be the first dedicated to conservation.
There has currently not been any announced A-Level qualification to go alongside the Natural History GCSE, but degrees such as Environmental Science and Earth Sciences are already popular at universities across the country. Imperial College London currently offers a BSc in Ecology and Environmental Biology, and The University of Edinburgh offers a BSc in Ecological and Environmental Sciences.
The new GCSE will likely be popular, as a recent survey found nearly 60% of young people feel very worried or extremely worried about climate change. Hopefully the Natural History GCSE will provide young people with the knowledge and understanding to take meaningful action against climate change.
Caroline Lucas, the Green Party’s only UK Member of Parliament, has been campaigning for the introduction of a GCSE focused on climate change alongside environmentalist Mary Colwell for 11 years. Lucas tweeted her support for the new qualification saying ‘now young people will learn more about natural world & be better equipped to restore it.’
The new qualification has also received praise from young people. One final-year Geography student at Cardiff University told Freshered, ‘I think it is a good thing introducing [a Natural History GCSE]. Not only is it a really interesting topic but it is really important. I think most young people now probably take it upon themselves to understand climate change anyway so it would definitely help GCSE students get a better understanding of it.’
Another Geography student at the University of Birmingham said, ‘It’s really nice to see that climate science has become a GCSE on its own because it gives students […] the option to focus on that.’
A Biology student at the University of Birmingham also told Freshered, ‘I think this new GCSE is a really good idea, I wish it had been an option when I was younger. I do think that it would’ve been much better if it had been launched ten years ago, since by the time the kids taking this GCSE are old enough to have PhDs and be working as climate scientists, global warming may already be out of control.
‘The world may have already crossed the 1.5 C threshold for dangerous warming by 2027, the first year people will be sitting this new GCSE.’