Bring back O level; it included map reading compass work and describing the terrain from OS maps.
As far as I can tell these days, its touchy-feely stuff about people. I was a Teacher till recently, so I saw a decline (sorry CHANGE) in difficulty in exam papers.
One of the reasons I returned to walking as that my Junior school organised trips for all the class to the Peak District with some over weekend stays (paid for by parents but very inexpensive). We learned basic navigation, what landscape formations where, how scree slopes happen etc.
I grew in a small town, surrounded by similar in Derbyshire and without the school trips I doubt I'd have started walking again as it simply wouldn't have occurred to me outside of NT properties and the gardens.
It no doubt helped that some of the teachers were keen walkers, but they sowed the seed. My class was fairly homogenous, but if the same happened today you'd have a much more diverse group experiencing the hills and may be liking the experience, rather than wait for people to discover it themselves - which with busy lives they may not do.
I do appreciate that there are a myriad of reasons why schools don't often do this kind of activity today if at all.
My personal experience is that whilst it is often white people walking of varying classes (how do you tell anyway?), I do increasingly see other backgrounds too. Not on the top of Sca Fell, but on the easier slopes, but everyone has to start somewhere.