Health and safety fears have contributed to a big decline in school geography field trips, prompting many students to abandon the subject, the schools inspectorate says today.

At a time when geographical issues such as floods, rising sea levels, conflict resolution, famine and global trade disputes are constantly in the media, numbers studying their causes and consequences in the classroom are in decline, Ofsted concludes. Inspectors blame poor teaching, often by teachers who are not expert in the subject, and a perception by pupils of it as “boring and irrelevant”. In particular, too few schools are taking pupils on field trips, even though this is known to be a key way of motivating pupils.

“The majority of the primary and secondary schools in the survey did not recognise the value of fieldwork sufficiently and did not fulfil the requirement to provide it. Concerns about health and safety, curriculum time, expertise and budgets reduced the amount and effectiveness of fieldwork,” inspectors said.

Health and safety fears were so pronounced in some schools that head teachers had refused to allow pupils off site, the report said.

The report’s comments follow concerns expressed by both the Prime Minister and Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, that a “cotton-wool culture” in schools risks denying children important opportunities for learning and enjoyment. Gordon Brown announced yesterday the creation of a new task force, the Risk and Regulation Advisory Council, to restore Britain’s sense of adventure.

In addition to fears about health and safety, some schools said that they did not offer field trips because they caused “disruption to the timetable”. Others cited “cultural barriers”, noting that it was sometimes difficult to get parental permission for Muslim girls at single-sex schools to go on field trips, where they may encounter boys.

Christine Gilbert, the chief inspector for education, children’s services and skills, said that much more needed to be done to make geography relevant and more engaging for pupils, particularly in the early years of secondary school when it is still compulsory. Geography remains in the top ten most popular subjects studied at GCSE, but numbers are falling. Last year 213,124 students sat the subject at GCSE, but this represented an 11 per cent fall on 2003. At A level, the number of students has also fallen by more than 11 per cent, to 31,653 over the same period. The report found that many teachers were not confident in teaching the subject and had little opportunity to improve their knowledge.

The global dimension of geography was underdeveloped in the majority of schools surveyed and too little was done to reinforce pupils’ understanding of issues such as global citizenship, diversity, human rights and sustainable development.

Rita Gardner, director of the Royal Geographical Society, said that health and safety fears could be overcome by involving pupils. “I would far rather see young people involved in assessing the risks themselves. It gives them a real-life skill and takes away some of the scare from it,” she said.

Poor teaching was often the result of a lack of specialist knowledge among teachers, Dr Gardner added.

“About 25 per cent of geography teachers don’t have a degree in the subject. The chances are, with the PE teacher taking the classes, they are not going to enthuse young people as much as someone with specific knowledge of the subject.”

However, she added that many of the issues raised in the report were being dealt with in a school support programme called Action Plus, run jointly by the RGS and the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Jim Knight, the Schools Minister, said that the Government was cutting red tape and making it easier for teachers to organise school trips.

Course works?

213,123 Number of GCSE geography examinations last year

11% Fall in numbers of both GCSE and A-level students since 2003

31,653 Number of A-level geography examinations sat last year

Source: Joint Council for Qualifications

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