Turkish schools to stop teaching evolution. By Kareem Shaheen and Gözde Hatunoğlu
Evolution will no
longer be taught in Turkish schools, a senior education official has said, in a
move likely to raise the ire of the country’s secular opposition. Alpaslan Durmuş, who
chairs the board of education, said evolution was debatable, controversial and
too complicated for students. “We believe that these subjects are beyond their [students] comprehension,”
said Durmuş in a video published
on the education ministry’s website.
Durmuş said a chapter
on evolution was being removed from ninth grade biology course books, and the
subject postponed to the undergraduate period. Another change to the curriculum
may reduce the amount of time that students spend studying the legacy of
secularism. Critics of the government
believe public life is being increasingly stripped of the secular traditions
instilled by the nation’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The secular opposition
has long argued that the government of Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan is pursuing a covert Islamist agenda contrary to the
republic’s founding values. Education is a particularly contentious avenue,
because of its potential in shaping future generations. Small-scale protests by
parents in local schools have opposed the way religion is taught.
There is little
acceptance of evolution as a concept among mainstream Muslim clerics in the
Middle East, who believe it contradicts the story of creation in scripture, in
which God breathed life into the first man, Adam, after shaping him from clay.
Still, evolution is briefly taught in many high school biology courses in the
region. The final changes to the curriculum are likely to be announced next week after
the Muslim Eid or Bayram festival at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
The draft changes had been put forth for public consultation at the beginning
of the year.
The subject of evolution in particular stirred debate earlier this year after Numan Kurtulmuş, the deputy prime minister, described the process as a theory that was both archaic and lacking sufficient evidence. Reports in Turkish media in recent weeks, based on apparent leaks of school board meetings, have also predicted a diminished role in the curriculum for the study of Atatürk, and an increase in the hours devoted to studying religion. Durmuş said that a greater emphasis would be placed on the contributions of Muslim and Turkish scientists and history classes would move away from a “Euro-centric” approach.
The subject of evolution in particular stirred debate earlier this year after Numan Kurtulmuş, the deputy prime minister, described the process as a theory that was both archaic and lacking sufficient evidence. Reports in Turkish media in recent weeks, based on apparent leaks of school board meetings, have also predicted a diminished role in the curriculum for the study of Atatürk, and an increase in the hours devoted to studying religion. Durmuş said that a greater emphasis would be placed on the contributions of Muslim and Turkish scientists and history classes would move away from a “Euro-centric” approach.
The changes were based
on a broad public consultation in which parents and the public played a key
role, he said. The Islamist-secularist debate is just one of a series of divides in a country
that two months ago narrowly
approved a referendum granting President Erdoğan broad new powers. Many in the
religiously conservative element of the president’s support base admire his
piety and see his ascension as a defeat of the elite “White Turks” – a
westernised elite that used to dominate the upper echelons of society and was
accused of looking down with disdain on poorer, more religiously inclined
citizens. The secular opposition
worries that the president and his party are reshaping Turkish society and
clinging to neo-Ottoman ideals that see Turkey as the vanguard
of a greater Islamic nation.
