Turkey stops the teaching of evolution theory in schools

The Turkish government has announced its decision to stop the teaching of Darwin's evolution theory in high schools as it deem it controversial and difficult to understand, a senior education official has said. 

Head of curriculum for the ministry of education, Alpaslan Durmus, said that Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was “controversial” and would be removed from school programmes with effect at the start of the 2017-2018 academic year. 

We have excluded controversial subjects for students at an age unable yet to understand the issues’ scientific background,” Mr Durmus said.  

Durmus, in an online address this week said that a chapter entitled "Beginning of Life and Evolution" will be deleted from the standard biology textbooks used in schools and the material will be available only to students who go on to university studies from age 18 or 19.

As the students at ninth grade are not endowed with antecedents to discuss the ‘Origin of Life and Evolution’ section in biology classes, this section will be delayed until undergraduate study he added.

He noted that the move was crafted to emphasize national values and highlight contributions made by Turkish and Muslim scholars.

If our students don't have the background, the scientific knowledge, or information to comprehend the debate around controversial issues, we have left them out," Durmus said.

Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is rejected by both Christian and Muslim creationists, who believe God created the world as described in the Bible and the Koran, making the universe and all living things in six days.

The Bible presents that as the exact time needed for creation but the Koran says "days" actually means long periods of time.