A few months ago, I sat expressing my anger towards the removal of climate change from the geography curriculum for key stages 1 – 3. The Department for Education seemed to overlook the very people who this decision would affect – school students. A few months later, I am happy and relieved to say that our request to keep climate in the curriculum has been acknowledged.
Today, it was announced that climate change would be kept in the Key Stage 3 curriculum. This means that students who do not choose geography at GCSE have a chance to learn about an issue that is so prominent that we have world leaders and politicians flying off to discuss it several times a year. Regardless of anyone’s belief, including it allows us to be informed about the physical and human elements of climate change.
Although I’m glad climate change is being kept in, the specification misses out core details. Topics such as sustainable development and global citizenship have completely been removed. These very core details are the aspects that relate climate change to our everyday life; aspects that will directly impact students in the UK.
As a young person growing up in an economic crisis, I always hear about our economic situation deteriorating, yet the impact of climate change on economic prosperity is not mentioned in the revised curriculum.
In addition, I find the revised geography curriculum to be poorly written, in the sense that it is vague. Compared to other subjects such as science and history, it lacks any real detail on topics and instead merely lists them.
Although it is a victory, it feels like a bittersweet victory. The voices of 70,000 students, academics and members of the public seemed to fall upon deaf ears within the Department for Education. It was frustrating to see that the Department only began to listen when the energy and climate change secretary listened to our concerns and stepped in.
I am happy that our concerns have been listened to but I think there is still an important lesson to learn: young people must be involved in the decisions which will affect our futures.
I’ve experienced first-hand the positive impacts that education can have on us all. Personally, education has helped form my ambitions, opinions, and I certainly wouldn’t be writing this if it weren’t for my geography lessons, both during and prior to GCSE. Students, alongside teacher’s opinions should be more valued, yet our voices are rarely heard.
All those signatories and hard work from young people represent just how much students are interested in their education and the importance of climate change within the curriculum. I look forward to continuing to be involved with getting young people at the heart of today’s decision making.
Esha Marwaha is a 15 year old student from West London who played a leading role in the campaign to keep climate change on the curriculum after she started an online petition, which generated news headlines and attracted tens of thousands of signatories.
