Why are schools not implementing sustainability courses throughout their GCSE choices NOW?

GSCEs are new to me, coming from a government school in a small town, in South Africa, we didn’t get such grand choices but grew up enjoying the nature we lived in.

Recently, I attended a meeting with the various heads of department at my son's school. I was surprised to find little mention of sustainability in the curriculum. I know I try to see everything through a green lens due to the sustainability industry I am in, but why wait for them to leave school, they should be ‘indoctrinated’ now.

Every career going forward should ultimately have an angle of sustainability, but deep rooted from school, otherwise we not going to have that bright sparkly future the schools currently promise, if you work hard.

Given the urgency of the need to encourage people and the world to change, we should start educating children about sustainability earlier.

I did get home to look this up if it was just his school or if it was nationwide. I am definitely no Bear Grylls, Chris Packham or David Attenborough who have actually campaigned for environmental studies to be embedded into student learning; prompting the creation of the Natural History GCSE, but this will only be launched for first teaching in September 2025.

Why do we need to wait this long and why is it only one subject, it should be intertwined through multiple! Red tape and box ticking don’t bode well for innovative sustainability solutions.

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi wrote in a press release in April 2022. He pledged greater support for teaching climate change at all levels by 2023. It’s now 2024….