Natural history GCSE on hold as qualification seen as ‘Tory initiative’, claims campaigner

Students protesting against the climate crisis. The GCSE was supposed to help young people develop knowledge and skills to conserve the natural world. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

The natural history GCSE has been shelved because it is “seen as a Conservative party initiative”, one of the architects of the proposed new qualification has said.

The conservationist and campaigner Mary Colwell told the Guardian she was “hugely frustrated” with the halt to the proposed new GCSE, which had been announced in 2022 and was supposed to be taught in schools by 2025.