Pupils do not have to cook to pass GCSE exam

The decline of cookery in schools can be revealed in full today after Prince Charles spoke out for a return to "good old-fashioned" classes on the subject.

A comparison between an O-level paper from 1982 and a modern home economics GCSE exam has uncovered the huge gulf between the requirements of the past and what today's pupils are taught.

The two papers, both from the Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations board, show that the art of cooking a meal has disappeared from the syllabus. While the earlier exam asked pupils to prepare and serve a range of meals within the confines of a four-hour practical exam, the new paper has no practical element at all.

Instead it provides a recipe for a lattice apple pie and questions candidates on the function played by the various ingredients.

While the O-level expects pupils to cook a desert the new version asks them to explain the scientific reasoning behind the need to put their notional pie into a preheated oven.

The decline in the practical knowledge of modern home economics students emerged after Prince Charles attacked the " politically correct pretence" of food technology classes.

Speaking as he opened the Royal Welsh Show in Powys, mid Wales, the Prince won applause as he demanded a return to traditional classes in home economics. "Why on earth can't we just bring back good old-fashioned home economics so that children are taught to cook and learn about proper food?" he asked.

TV chef Gary Rhodes, who did not take home economics at school but learned his art cooking for his single mother and two siblings as a teenager, echoed the Prince's call. "I would dearly love to see cookery back in schools on a permanent-and compulsory basis - I am with Prince Charles 100 per cent," he said.

"There is a huge problem with obesity at the moment but all the Government is looking at is how to cure it when what they need to do is prevent it in the first place.

"If you make cooking compulsory between seven and 11 it will develop their palates."

A recent report by schools inspectorate Ofsted and the Food Standards Agency revealed that many primary schools lack specialist food preparation rooms for cookery lessons.

Another study, commissioned by The Guide Association, found four in 10 British schoolgirls have never cooked anything.

Mike Chivers, headteacher of the Ernest Bevan School for Boys in Wandsworth, said: "All our pupils do practical cooking lessons from 11 to 14 years old.

"The problem is often finding a staff member properly qualified to teach in this area."

Richard Townsend, principal of Dunraven School in Lambeth, said cooking was also compulsory for 11- to 14-year-olds. "I agree with Prince Charles entirely. It is just a matter of trying to fit it into the curriculum," he said.