WHEN I was a teenager considering my GCSE choices, the first subject I wanted to drop was history.

Having spent the last two years learning about JFK and the creation of asphalt – the former was fascinating, the latter deathly dull – I just couldn’t bear the thought of a second more with my less-than-charismatic history teacher.

Looking back now, however, I wish I’d stuck it out. Many a time I have been left feeling totally ignorant for not knowing very much about any of the major historical events shaping our country.

But the worrying thing is, I’m not alone.

Figures revealed in a Freedom of Information request to the Department for Children, Schools and Families show that fewer and fewer pupils are opting to take history GCSE.

Last summer just 200,000 – 31 per cent – were entered for the exam, meaning that 450,000 did not take the subject. This compares to 35 per cent of youngsters sitting the GCSE in 1997.

There is an increasing number of young people growing up with virtually no knowledge of former kings and queens or even the First and Second World Wars.

But just why is the interest in history decreasing?

Peter McNutt, Bournemouth Borough Council’s strategy leader for Secondary Children’s Learning and Engagement, said the range of subjects now on offer was partly to blame.

“There is a much wider range of qualifications that students can opt for at age 14, and more choice means that history has to compete with a lot of other attractive options,” he said.

“Students do worry that studying history will mean spending all their time trying to remember dates and facts or dredging their memory and writing things down.”

Local historian Michael Hodges believes schools are in a difficult position when it comes to fitting in an increasing range of subjects, but insists history is important to today’s children.

“I can well understand why people say that reading and writing and figuring has to come before everything else,” he said.

“But I do feel it’s important that people do try to keep history and geography relevant in some way or another.

“You need to know where you fit in the world and you need to know where you fit in society.

“How many children today can tell you much about World War Two or Winston Churchill, when in fact their own grandparents were being shot at?”

Figures show that the number of pupils taking GCSE history in Bournemouth has remained around the same for the last three years.

But we found a mix of feelings on the subject among people in the town centre yesterday.

Richard Abdy, 58, from West Moors, said: “I passed history at A-Level and thoroughly enjoyed it. It should be offered to children alongside geography because both are really important.”

Katherine Alder, 19, from Winton, said: “I took it at GCSE and then on to A-Level as it was surprisingly interesting.

“You can’t really learn about the future without knowing the history first.”

Maisie Lee, 14, from Poole, said: “I find it really boring, but quite easy.

“I won’t be choosing it for one of my subjects next year because I’m taking on more science-related subjects instead.”

And one 17-year-old, on holiday from Leamington, said: “I didn’t take history at GCSE just because I really wanted to take something else.

“Some bits of it were terrible and quite boring to be taught. But children should be able to choose if they want to take it or not.”