Share

Children ill-equipped for nature and climate crises without education reform

The Wildlife Trusts call for nature GCSE and learning outdoors to be prioritised when Government unveils education plans this spring

 

The Wildlife Trusts are calling on the Government to announce the long-awaited Natural History GCSE and set standards for outdoor learning when the Department for Education publishes its ‘Sustainability & Climate Change Strategy’ in April.

The strategy is intended to shape how environmental issues are taught in schools. Currently, there are no requirements to help children develop a deeper knowledge and understanding of the natural world.

Also absent are minimum standards for outdoor learning, despite years of evidence showing how beneficial it is for children’s health, confidence, and well-being. Children’s interaction with nature is also declining, with 60% of young people spending less time outdoors since the start of the pandemic.

The Wildlife Trusts believe the Government needs to focus on:

A nature GCSE:

  • More than 90% of people agree or strongly agree with the proposed purpose of a GCSE in natural history
  • An initial campaign was led by naturalist Mary Colwell, who has long been concerned about a lack of natural history in the curriculum

Minimum standards and time set for outdoor learning:

  • Research shows that outdoor learning improves children’s health, well-being, happiness, and ability to learn
  • There are currently no requirements for children to spend time learning outside

Embedding nature and climate education across all subjects and at all levels:

  • 70% of teachers have not received adequate training to teach about climate change
  • Research shows that young people’s connection to nature drops sharply from the age of 11 and doesn’t recover until they are 30.

The 2021 Dasgupta review, The Economics of Biodiversity, concluded on education; “Every child in every country is owed the teaching of natural history, to be introduced to the awe and wonder of the natural world, to appreciate how it contributes to our lives.”

Education is critical to addressing challenges facing the natural world but, with one in four species in the UK threatened with extinction, time is running out.

Shropshire Wildlife Trust engages with schools across the county, but outdoor learning is optional and only a small percentage of schools currently allow any time for children to spent time to learn about nature and their local green spaces. The proposal to introduce a new nature GCSE would increase the number of young people who are given the opportunity to reconnect with the natural world.