Government plans to change how environmental issues are taught in the national curriculum should be dropped, according to a local wildlife trust.
Under the plans, many references to conservation and sustainability will be removed from the pre-GCSE syllabus, particularly in Geography.
But chief executive of the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust, Philippa Lyons said: “Removing caring for the environment from the National Curriculum will deprive children of the immensely valuable opportunity to learn about the natural world around them in practical and fun activities.
“If children don’t have connections with the living world around them, how are they going to understand and tackle the problems of climate change when they’re adults?”
The trust has an enivronmental education centre at the College Lake nature reserve near Tring, which thousands of Vale schoolchildren visit each year.
Steve Backshall, wildlife television presenter and President of thetrust, said: “Children need to feel, experience, touch and smell the natural world; hold frogs, beetles and millipedes in their hands and feel mud squelching between their toes.”
The government’s consultation on the plans runs until April 16.