Tesco studies in geography GCSE

Tesco and climate change will be on the geography syllabus

The impact of Tesco on local high streets is to become part of the syllabus in a modern "make-over" for GCSE geography.

The OCR exam board wants a more contemporary feel for the subject - including topics such as examining the influence of retail giants.

It also proposes studying climate change and the type of flooding that hit Tewkesbury last year.

Pupils will also be allowed to present work as cartoons, videos or poems.

The exam board says the course reflects "pressing issues of the 21st century".

The draft for a new-look geography GCSE, aiming for a more immediate appeal to young people, will including looking at "the impact of real consumer decisions".

'Tesco towns'

Tesco's expansion has drawn criticism from those who fear that it threatens the diversity of local, independent shops - with accusations that it was creating "Tesco towns".

Geography students will be able to examine the retailer's "socio-economic impact on high streets".

The move to make geography more engaging follows a highly-critical report earlier this year from Ofsted inspectors - who warned that the subject was too often boring and lacking in relevance for young people.

The revised syllabus will include sustainability, globalisation and development, with the aim of connecting geographical studies "to the real world".

There will also be "creative methods" allowed to present work, including "cartoons, reflective journals, poems and videos", in a unit worth 25% of the overall marks.

This issues-based approach to geography was backed by Friends of the Earth as a sign of "geography GCSE moving with the times".

The environmental campaigners' education co-ordinator, Vicki Felgate, says that "issues such as how our consumer choices impact upon the world around us is vital to giving young people an understanding of how they can be responsible citizens".

'Pious truisms'

Parool Patel, head of the exam board's GCSE project, said that it was important that the geography curriculum "reflects and provides today's pupils and tomorrow's global citizens with an opportunity to apply their own knowledge to the real world".

"The physical and geographical challenges facing the wider world have drastically changed in recent years. This is very clear from the freak weather changes we are experiencing at present."

There is another draft form of the geography GCSE available which provides a "more familiar approach to the subject, covering favourite topics such as coastlines and natural hazards alongside new topics such as trade, aid and globalisation".

However moving towards a more issues-based approach to subjects such as geography and science has been criticised for "hollowing out" the academic content.

Robert Whelan, deputy director of the think-tank Civitas, says geography has become a vehicle for promoting environmentalism - which "spoon feeds pious truisms".

"It's part of a process of removing academic content and replacing it with politically correct dogma," he said.