**1. Introduction**

The purpose of this chapter was to analyse the coverage of policy and examination of environmental content EE/ESD in Geography in the Further Education and Training (FET) phase (Grades 10–12) of the South African education system. The study investigated whether there was alignment between policy documents and the Grade 12 past examination question papers' coverage of environmental content, which were written from the years 2005 to 2015 during the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD). This period was chosen because it covered the

time of the shifts in the school curriculum in South Africa up to the new Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) that was implemented in Grade 12 in 2012. This was also a period of international focus on sustainable development, and this should have had an influence on the school curricula.

The South African education system has undergone several curricula transformations since the dawn of democracy in the country in 1994. In this chapter, curriculum refers to the means and materials used by teachers and learners for the purpose of acquiring selected educational results [1]. Furthermore, [2] states that a curriculum involves learning activities that are fully controlled and implemented by educational institutions and educators, then done by the intended learners individually or in formed groups, inside or outside of the classroom environment. The purpose of the curriculum is to prepare learners to adapt and strive within the society in terms of educational change and growth [1].

In the school system, assessment is one of the most important aspects of a curriculum which determines whether learners have acquired the expertise and skills necessary to practice what they have been taught. In the South African education system, assessment is used to determine whether learners can be advanced to a higher grade. Teachers find themselves compelled to teach what is likely to be examinable at the end of the year examinations, which is part of the curriculum design postulated by [3]. arris contends that we are living in a volatile global environment that has evolving dynamism in response to impetus [4]. Harris further states that in the last century it has become apparent that humanity has taken control of the planet's ecosystems and biochemical cycles in such a way that human activities are now causing environmental change [4].

More importantly, it was envisaged that due to curriculum changes, there might be a possible disparity between content coverage and actual examination in the Geography syllabi. Hence, this study investigated documents with regard to extent of environmental content in the curriculum. This study used a qualitative research approach, where Archer's Realist Social Theory (RST) was the guiding framework [5]. Supporting this approach, documents and interviews were used as sources of data. This study focused on environmental impact content knowledge rather than the actual teaching practice, hence only documents were used as data.

This study attempts to close a research gap as few studies have investigated the extent of coverage of environmental content in the South African curriculum. This is seen where issues such as climate change are well covered in the policy documents, yet not much has been seen in translating this into the actual practice in the form of examination [6]. Most studies have focused on the effects of policies in teaching and adaptation of teachers to new policies [7].
