A landmark new GCSE in natural history is unlikely to be introduced by its original target of next September.
The proposals were announced to great fanfare by former education secretary Nadhim Zahawi in 2022, forming part of the government’s sustainability and climate strategy.
He said it would offer young people “a chance to develop a deeper knowledge and understanding” of the Earth, its environment and “how we can come together to conserve it”.
The aim was to introduce it by 2025, pending approval from exams regulator Ofqual.
But Schools Week understands the sign-off process was stalled earlier this year.
Mary Colwell, a BBC veteran who spearheaded the GCSE’s campaign, was told by officials that the subject criteria had been signed off by the Department for Education. The next step would have been a public consultation.
But it was “blocked” and left “unresolved before the election” when it went through the “write-round” process – where other departments give their views. It is not known why.
DfE says pledge was ‘made by previous government’
A timeline on the OCR exam board’s website, updated in July, said the GCSE would now be taught from 2026.
The DfE said this week the GCSE was a “commitment made by the previous government” and “this government will set out its policy priorities in due course”.
Separately, when asked when the qualification would be made available in schools, schools minister Catherine McKinnell pointed to the new government’s curriculum and assessment review.
“The review will consider the current qualification pathways available at key stage 4 and key stage 5.”
Ministers urged to ‘fast track it through the system’
Colwell, who worked with the OCR and Green Party MP Caroline Lucas on the plan, said the lack of commitment was “hugely disappointing” after “all the time, passion and energy that was put into developing the GCSE, and the overwhelmingly positive response the idea received”.
“I urge the Department for Education consider the power that lies behind this qualification and to fast track it through the system. We owe it to the next generation.”
Other curriculum plans by the last government remain in limbo.
The Times reported Labour had shelved a planned model history curriculum, with members of the expert panel advised by the DfE that it was no longer needed.
Meanwhile a primary science model curriculum, pledged to be developed by 2023, is well overdue. A cultural education plan was meant to be formed by the end of last year.
Labour has also not said what it will do with the previous government’s review of relationships, sex and health education.
Your thoughts