Turkey to refuse teaching evolution in schools

Turkey’s new school curriculum, which goes into effect this autumn, will no longer include evolution as part of its teachings. Instead the teaching focus will be on the Abrahamic origin story.

During an announcement on the 17th of August, Turkey’s Education Minister, Ismet Yilmaz, told reporters that new textbooks will be introduced in all primary and secondary schools, starting with grades 1, 5 and 9 this fall, and the rest of next year. The theories of Charles Darwin and evolution were previously taught from grade 9 and onwards under the old curriculum, but will now not be discussed until the students reach university level.

This religiously reformed teaching curriculum comes at the insistence of the office of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Erdoğan’s administration has a strong following within the local and regional Muslim Brotherhood movement. This has lead the country, under Erdoğan’s leadership, to quickly move away from the relatively secular and progressive foundation that Turkey was created on, towards a significantly more overt religious one. Turkey, whose more than 70 year old constitution emphasizes its secular foundation, has a majority of Muslims, many of which favor a belief in creation, not natural selection.

Critics of the new curriculum are told, by its advocates, that evolution has no place in “a just” classroom, and should instead be taught, if at all, at home.

Ali Alpar, an astrophysicist and president of Turkey’s Science Academy, an independent group that opposes the new curriculum, has expressed deep concern over the move. “We feel very sorry and very, very worried for the country,” Alpar stated. The Turkish teachers association has also expressed concern over the new textbooks and curriculum.

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