Exam for life

A new GCSE in natural history will teach children about wildlife — and they want to learn, says Mary Colwell

- Mary Colwell

Research for the family activity app Hoop in August 2019 revealed that under a quarter of children between the ages of five and 15 can name a robin or a badger, less than half can identify a stinging nettle and a whopping 82 percent failed to recognize a bumblebee.

This lack of engagement with the natural world is not only a tragedy for the children, who are missing out on fascination and wonder, but it also points to a deep failure in our education system. For this reason, I have lobbied for more than a decade for a qualification in natural history.

It’s possible to go through school, taking biology at GCSE and A level, and barely go outside. The Field Studies Council, which runs practical, outdoor classes for biology, geography and ecology courses, reports a steady decrease in the number of learner hours spent doing outside science.

For some science students the biology A level field course — which is just, on average, three days — will be their only opportunity to be involved in fieldwork throughout their whole formal science education, from five to 18 years old. We are educating future generations to be students of the virtual world rather than practitioners in the visceral, real one.

If you live in a city, you are likely to have been disrupted by the Extinction Rebellion, a ground-up movement of mainly young people who want to change the way we live on the planet to stop catastrophic climate change and loss of biodiversity.

Deep concern

Whatever you think of their activities, it shows there is deep concern about the state of our planet. Those same protesters are the ones who say they are let down by the school system. Many feel that what they learn at their desks is not sufficient for the challenges they know they will face.