The government is considering introducing compulsory nature studies lessons for all pupils as part of a David Attenborough-backed plan to protect the natural world.
The Independent understands that the Department for Education is actively looking at whether pupils could be made to take lessons focusing on biodiversity and ecology, after the step was recommended by a landmark government review published last month.
Introducing such lessons at all levels of education from primary upwards was a key recommendation of the Dasgupta Review, which was launched by the government to come up with ways to change “how we think, act and measure economic success” while protecting nature.
The review’s recommendations were wholeheartedly endorsed by Britain’s leading naturalist Sir David, who described them as “a map for navigating a path towards the restoration of our planet’s biodiversity” and “the compass that we urgently need” to “save the natural world at what may be the last minute”.
The review, authored by eminent Cambridge economist Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta, said the education system “should introduce Nature studies from the earliest stages of our lives, and revisit them in the years we spend in secondary and tertiary education”.
It adds: “Every child in every country is owed the teaching of natural history, to be introduced to the awe and wonder of the natural world, and to appreciate how it contributes to our lives”.
“If we care about our common future and the common future of our descendants, we should all in part be naturalists.”
The review says the study should be required at every level, even university, adding: “Even if we had studied Nature in primary school, we may not have encountered the subject subsequently.
“In universities in the United States, it was common practice to require first-year students to complete a course on a broad-brush history of civilisation.
“There is every reason universities should require new students to attend a course on basic ecology. Field studies that would accompany such a course would be a way to connect students with Nature, in particular those who may have grown up in an urban environment.”
The purpose of the lessons would be to help children and teenagers develop a “love of nature” and to have the information to act as “judge and jury for our own actions” on the environment.
Every child in every country is owed the teaching of natural history, to be introduced to the awe and wonder of the natural world, and to appreciate how it contributes to our lives
Dasgupta Review
Schools minister Nick Gibb said in response to a parliamentary question on the matter that the government “will examine the Review’s findings and respond formally in due course”.
He said ministers were “exploring the option of introducing a new GCSE in Natural History after receiving a proposal from exam board OCR, but have made no commitment at this stage”.
Mr Gibb noted that an A-level qualification in Environmental Science had been introduced for the first time in 2017.
DfE officials said no firm decision had yet been made on whether ecology or natural history could be made compulsory, as recommended by the review.
Green MP Caroline Lucas, who has been pressing ministers for the change, told The Independent, said the lessons were badly needed.
“It’s taken a long time and a lot of hard work by so many to get this far, but now it seems we’re getting closer to ecology and natural history having a much firmer place on the curriculum, as renewed appreciation of nature and green spaces grows,” she said.
“I’m incredibly excited by how it could really enrich children’s experience of education. This is a subject which will take them out of the classroom and into the natural environment – nothing could be more important when we are driving so many species to the verge of extinction. People protect what they love and what they know. The love of nature is already there. This GCSE would give them the knowledge.
“Ecology is a hole in the curriculum and yet, as Professor Dasgupta’s report made clear, it’s never been more important that our dependence on nature is better understood. We teach climate change in our schools because of its global importance. Nature is just as important and needs to be reflected in our education system.”
