What a joke: How pupils can pass GCSE geography by drawing a cartoon

The Oxford, Cambridge and RSA exam board yesterday unveiled a course which allows assessment through "creative pupil presentation methods".

These include writing poems and reflective journals, drawing cartoons and making videos, podcasts and posters.

The shake-up is designed to make geography more interesting for teenagers and comes after a fall in numbers taking the subject at GCSE. Last year, 213,124 pupils sat geography GCSE, down from 227,832 in 2004.

The board's "geography A" syllabus allows pupils to study "relevant" topics including the socioeconomic impact of supermarkets.

It is divided into four units, each worth 25 per cent of the total marks.

A unit called You as a Global Citizen is internally assessed by teachers and requires two written tasks.

Task one is to "investigate how consumer decisions may have a positive or negative impact on people", while task two requires students to "investigate a local retail area" such as a shopping centre or out-of-town retail park.

The specification says: "Presentation of this work can take a variety of formats including, for example, presentations, poems, posters, video, oral, reflective journals, fieldwork data collection sheets, research tasks, reports, extended writing and cartoons."

Another unit, Shaping Our Fast Changing World, says that teachers should ensure their pupils have acquired skills including fieldwork techniques and "cartoon interpretation".

Chris Woodhead, Ofsted's former chief inspector of schools, attacked the new assessment techniques.

"Education used to be about teaching children worthwhile knowledge and examinations used to test what they understood of that knowledge - and that means facts about the world we live in," he said.

"If these facts are no longer being taught and if the examination no longer tests in a serious way the students' grasp of that knowledge, it's not so much 'dumbing down' as 'wiping out' anything meaningful.

"Now any personal response counts. What matters is a candidate's opinion, however ill-informed."

The Oxford board also unveiled a second exam syllabus, "geography B", which provides a more traditional approach, covering topics such as coastlines and natural hazards.

It said the courses, which will begin in 2009, give teachers "a choice of the approach and content, which best meet the needs of their students".

Board spokesman Parool Patel said: "Our GCSE options will encourage pupils to understand facts and figures about their environment."

• The number of GCSE and A-level pupils allowed extra time to sit their exams has almost doubled in two years.

Figures show 69,226 candidates were granted as much as 25 per cent more time in their GCSEs and A-levels last year, up from 35,319 in 2005.

In 2006, the figure was 56,900, according to the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

Extra time can be given to pupils with dyslexia, who use Braille or who are affected by temporary illness or injury.

Nick Seaton, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education said: "Allowing slowcoaches extra time defeats one of the main purposes of the exam.

"This is a huge increase. It looks as though youngsters are getting wise to loopholes in the system and exploiting them to the full."

A QCA spokesman said: "Access arrangements are not there to give candidates an unfair advantage but to give all candidates a level playing field."