GCSE board bans word ‘squatter' over diversity concerns
The wording will be removed from exam papers from September and will be replaced with 'informal settlements', according to the OCR exam board.
The phrase was removed 'to ensure more appropriate terminology', the exam board said.
It made the change as part of a package of ' equality, diversity, inclusion and belonging' updates to the qualification, which will be introduced to pupils in the next academic year.
A squatter settlement, or squat, is a piece of land where people live that they do not legally own, rent or have permission to occupy.
The areas are also known as slums or shanty towns.
The specification, seen by The Telegraph, said: 'We have replaced 'squatter settlements' with 'informal settlements'.
''Squatter settlements' have been removed to ensure more appropriate terminology.'
Other changes include making debt relief an example of international aid rather than a separate alternative to it.
'We have reframed this content as the focus is on international aid, debt relief does not have to be covered', the exam board explained.
Prof David Abulafia, the professor emeritus of Mediterranean history at the University of Cambridge, said educational bodies were 'papering over the truth by coming up with jargonistic formulations'.
He added: 'It's just getting worse and worse. [These changes] do not solve any problems for anyone.'
The change is part of a wider trend of institutions updating their language guides to be seen as more inclusive.
In February, The Telegraph revealed that European Union officials had been warned against using words such as 'tradesman' and 'man-made'.
The guidance, issued by the European Commission, also takes aim at the phrase 'man in the street', saying 'the average person' should be used instead.
Demands to decolonise geography in particular, led by activist students and lecturers, have also spread across UK universities over the past year.
Kathryn Yusoff, an academic at Queen Mary University of London, said geology was 'riven by systemic racism' and colonialism.
She also suggested palaeontology, the study of prehistoric life through fossils, was partly to blame for racism, labelling it 'pale-ontology'.
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