Due to Boris Johnson and his Tory cohorts failing miserably at leading us through the COVID crisis, handling the pandemic was largely left to individuals and grassroots operations to act to feed hungry kids throughout the school holidays and provide vital resources for food banks. More specifically – Manchester United football star Marcus Rashford who spent the time leading social justice campaigns on social media.

Over the past year, the footballer fought against child food poverty, encouraged the government to provide free meals to students in need, tackled racist abuse after a missed penalty at the Euro 2020 final, and launched a book club to support disadvantaged children’s reading. 

Now – after receiving an outpouring of praise for his social media campaigns – Rashford’s work will officially be added to the GCSE media studies’ syllabus. 

After organising a new group of experts in equality, diversity, and inclusion to review representation across the curriculum and assessments, GCSE exam board AQA has decided to include course learning covering Rashford’s online presence, communication skills, and follower engagement in its media studies curriculum.

Head of AQA’s creative arts curriculum Sandra Allan hopes the new course material will motivate and inspire students. “Marcus Rashford is one of the most influential and inspirational young people in the UK, so students can learn a huge amount from how he uses social media to make a real impact,” she told The Guardian.

She continued: “It’s not just an opportunity for them to learn about social media – it’s also a great way to learn about important social and race issues as part of our commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion in the curriculum.”

Other updated learning topics will include Marvel’s Black Widow character, the Kiss radio breakfast show, Heat Magazine, and TV series His Dark Materials. The new GSCE media studies curriculum will commence next September.

We spoke to Rashford for the Summer 2021 issue of Dazed – check out the interview here.