ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey is to stop teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution in high schools, deeming it controversial and difficult to understand, a senior education official said, a move likely to alarm secular Turks.

Critics say President Tayyip Erdogan and the Islamist-rooted AK Party are undermining modern Turkey’s secular foundations by pushing a conservative agenda, including tighter regulation of alcohol and other restrictions, since coming to power in 2002.

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, Alparslan Durmus, head of the national education board said in an online address this week.

“We are aware that if our students don’t have the background to comprehend the premises and hypotheses, or if they don’t have the knowledge and scientific framework, they will not be able to understand some controversial issues, so we have left out some of them,” he 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.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said earlier this year that Darwin theory, first published in the 19th century, was “old and rotten” and did not necessarily have to be taught.

The changes are part of a new curriculum that will go into effect at the start of the 2017-2018 academic year, and was formulated in accordance with “Turkish values”, Durmus said.

A total of 51 courses programs from primary school to high school, including those at the “Imam Hatip” religious schools championed by Erdogan, have been changed.

A lobby group that promotes secular education, the Egitim-Is (“Education Work”) Union has voiced concern at the changes to the curriculum, saying it reduced emphasis on the achievements of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey who banned Islam from public life.</s>Alpaslan Durmus, who heads the curriculum board at the Turkish Ministry of Education, spoke about the new curriculum on Thursday. He called evolution a "controversial subject" that would be excluded "for students at an age unable yet to understand the issue's scientific background," according to Turkey's Hurriyet Daily News.

"We are aware that if our students don't have the background to comprehend the premises and hypotheses, or if they don't have the knowledge and scientific framework, they will not be able to understand some controversial issues, so we have left out some of them," Durmus said. The evolution unit that students took during ninth grade biology "would be delayed until undergraduate study."

Government critics and educators have slammed the decision, as well as the government's official explanation. In a phone interview with CNN, Ebru Yigit, a board member of secular education union Egitim-Sen, said, "The curriculum change in its entirety is taking the education system away from scientific reasoning and changing it into a dogmatic religious system.

"The elimination of the evolution unit from classes is the most concrete example of this."

Other aspects of the curriculum include a downplaying of secular topics as well as studies of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the progressive secularist father of modern Turkey. Atatürk remains iconic and popular among the Turkish people, but Erdogan and other Islamists begrudge him for his strict secularism, which some have referred to as anti-Islamic.

In place of these programs will be a class on the 2016 anti-government coup, where military leaders failed to seize power from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, that critics say will present a pro-government distortion of the events.

The hand of Erdogan, who many have accused of reshaping Turkey to better suit his authoritarian and Islamist ideals, can be felt in these reforms. He has often used education to further his agendas, such as expanding imam-hatip schools meant to train imams to also include the national curriculum.

Many devout Muslims (as well as Christians) prefer creationism to evolution. A 2011 poll found that 60 percent of Turkish adults reject evolution in favor of creationism. In Saudi Arabia, an Islamic theocracy, it is forbidden to teach evolution in schools. Turkey's education system, at least nominally, is secular.</s>According to both the Guardian and The Independent, the Turkish government, with the approval of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has just stopped the teaching of evolution in secondary schools, saying that students in the ninth grade aren’t able to understand the idea. Although—according to a friend who teaches evolution in a Turkish university—evolution is often left out of the secondary school curriculum (as it often is in the U.S.), now it won’t be offered in any secondary schools.

According to the Guardian, the announcement was made here, and if you understand Turkish, do tell us what this guy is saying (click screenshot to go to video):

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. . . . 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.

There is no doubt why this is happening: it’s part of the increasing Islamicization of Turkey by the theocratic strongman Erdoğan, who is increasingly demolishing the secular government set up by Kemal Atatürk in favor of Muslim habits and strictures. Besides arresting 50,000 perceived opponents, arrogating more power for himself, imposing more restrictions in alcohol, and reintroducing religious (i.e., Islamic) education in schools,Erdoğan’s now attacking science education.

Since the Qur’an states that humans were created like this:

And certainly did We create man from an extract of clay

 Then We place him as a sperm-drop in a firm lodging

 Then We made the sperm-drop into a clinging clot, and We made the clot into a lump [of flesh], and we made [from] the lump bones, and We covered the bones with flesh; then We developed him into another creation. So blessed is Allah, the best of creators.*

. . . and because many Muslims believe the Qur’an should be read literally, teaching evolution can be seen as anti-Islam, and few Muslim-majority countries teach it in secondary schools. (I once had a Turkish cab driver lecture to me about evolution and how the Qur’an says that humans were created, though he didn’t know I was an evolutionary biologist.)

The Guardian also reports that other secular aspects of the curriculum will be diminished, including downplaying the achievements of Atatürk, who would be spinning in his grave were he to see what Erdoğan is doing:

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.

I weep for Turkey, a country I love. I was invited to Ankara this winter to speak about evolution, but didn’t go, and now I wish I had. Perhaps they’ll invite me again, and this time I’d be delighted to tell my audiences why evolution is TRUE.

*note that the words “developed him into another creation” could be taken as a kind of theistic evolution, but I haven’t seen Muslims, who usually don’t take the Qur’an as metaphor, interpret it this way.</s>Istanbul, Turkey (CNN) Turkish high school students will no longer be taught the theory of evolution.

The subject has been cut from the curriculum under changes made to eliminate "controversial" topics, the head of the national board of education, Alpaslan Durmus, announced in a video address.

"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.

The new curriculum will go into effect for the 2017- 2018 school year.

It was crafted to emphasize national values and highlight contributions made by Turkish and Muslim scholars, Durmus said.

History classes will look beyond "Eurocentrism" and music classes will focus on "all colors of Turkish music," he said.

Critics view the changes in the education system as another step in the ruling Justice and Development Party's ambitions to make Turkey more conservative. Erdogan has been vocal about wanting to raise "a pious generation."

The argument that evolution is too difficult for ninth-graders to comprehend is not a reasonable explanation for removing the unit from high schools, according to Ebru Yigit, a board member of the secular education union Egitim-Sen.

"The curriculum change in its entirety is taking the education system away from scientific reasoning and changing it into a dogmatic religious system," Yigit said in a phone interview with CNN. "The elimination of the evolution unit from classes is the most concrete example of this."

Darwin's theory of evolution has been at the center of the Turkish culture wars over the last decade.

The controversy is based in a conservative and hard-line approach to the scientific theory that equates evolution with atheism, according to Mustafa Akyol a fellow at the Freedom Project at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

But the theory in its most basic form doesn't have to pose a problem for Muslims, he said.

"There are various progressive theologians in Turkey who argue that evolution is the way God created life via natural means," Akyol said.

The decision to eliminate evolution from the curriculum "implies that more conservative, parochial and anti-intellectual Islamic views are more ascendant," he said.

Eliminating evolution from high schools takes information away from students and reveals a worrying trend of getting rid of anything that challenges tradition, he said.

"They could have been still conservative, but also wise," Akyol said. "The students could have been informed, rather than uninformed."</s>Turkey is to stop teaching Darwin's theory of evolution in high schools, claiming it is controversial and difficult to understand, a senior education official said.

In a move which has alarmed secular Turks, a chapter entitled 'Beginning of Life and Evolution' will be deleted from the standard biology textbooks used in schools.

The material will be available only to students who go on to higher education, according to head of the national education board Alparslan Durmus.

Critics say President Tayyip Erdogan and the Islamist-rooted AK Party are undermining modern Turkey's secular foundations by pushing a conservative agenda.

They have held up tighter regulation of alcohol and other restrictions since he came to power in 2002 as further examples.

'We are aware that if our students don't have the background to comprehend the premises and hypotheses, or if they don't have the knowledge and scientific framework, they will not be able to understand some controversial issues, so we have left out some of them,' said Durmus.

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.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said earlier this year that Darwin theory, first published in the 19th century, was 'old and rotten' and did not necessarily have to be taught.

The changes are part of a new curriculum that will go into effect at the start of the 2017-2018 academic year, and was formulated in accordance with 'Turkish values', Durmus said.

A total of 51 courses programmes from primary school to high school, including those at the 'Imam Hatip' religious schools championed by Erdogan, have been changed.</s>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 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.</s>Claiming that evolution is “debatable, controversial, and too complicated for students,” Turkey’s board of education has decided to stop teaching Darwinian natural selection in its schools. The move has infuriated the country’s secular opposition, but it could embolden other countries to do the same.

The Guardian reports that Turkey’s senior education official, Alpaslan Durmuş, says the chapter on evolution will be removed from grade nine biology textbooks, and the subject will be avoided until students reach the university level. “We believe that these subjects are beyond [the] comprehension [of students],” he explained in a video posted to the education ministry’s website.

The move is disappointing, but not entirely surprising. Pro-creationist voices in Turkey have been agitating for years, and parents have started to protest the way religion is being taught in schools. Earlier this year, the country’s deputy prime minister, Numan Kurtulmuş, described evolution as being “archaic” and “lacking sufficient evidence.”

In addition to removing evolution from the curriculum, students will spend less time studying the country’s secular legacy, and shorter shrift will be paid to the nation’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who instilled secular traditions and norms in the country. More emphasis will be placed on the teaching of religion, and the contributions of various Turkish and Muslim scientists. As a whole, schools will be moving away from a “Eurocentric” approach. The final version of the curriculum is expected next week at the conclusion of Ramadan.

Needless to say, this isn’t going over very well with the country’s secular opposition, who have been accusing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of steering the nation towards an Islamic agenda that runs contrary to the country’s founding principles. The opposition is particularly incensed by these latest changes to the curriculum, as they will influence the next generation of thinkers. The education reforms come a mere two months after Erdoğan won a narrow victory in a referendum that now grants him sweeping executive powers.

Writing in the The Guardian, reporters Kareem Shaheen and Gözde Hatunoğlu claim there’s “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.”

It’s difficult to know if Turkey’s decision to do away with evolution in the classroom will inspire other countries to do same, or if this is a development specific to Turkey and its changing sociopolitical landscape. The latter may very well be the case.

Aside from a few areas of the United States and several Islamic fundamentalist countries, practically every nation on this planet teaches evolution—or is at least trying to. Darwinian natural selection is even taught in some of the most pious countries, such as Poland, Ireland, and Iran. Some jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom and Brazil, explicitly forbid the teaching of creationism. Back in 2007, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution warning of the dangers of creationism in education, urging member states to “firmly oppose the teaching of creationism as a scientific discipline on an equal footing with the theory of evolution and in general the presentation of creationist ideas in any discipline other than religion.”

On the dark side of the debate, Saudi Arabia’s grade 12 textbooks only mention evolution by name, claiming the idea denies Allah’s creation of humanity. In Pakistan, evolution is only taught at the university level. Hopefully Turkey and other evolution-skeptical nations—the United States included—will eventually come around to teaching a concept that has proven its worth, and only gotten stronger, since it was proposed 150 years ago. Evolution isn’t “just” a theory anymore—it’s an incontrovertible part of our reality. [The Guardian]</s>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.</s>Turkish schoolchildren will no longer be taught about evolution, a government official has said, in another sign of the conservative direction the country is heading in under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Alpaslan Durmus, the head of curriculum for the ministry of education, said that Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was “controversial” and would be removed from school programmes by 2019.

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

“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.”</s>The University of Portsmouth has been awarded a prestigious 'Gold' rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework, the UK government's first assessment of teaching excellence in higher education.

The University of Portsmouth is one of only four universities in the South East region to be rated gold, along with the Universities of Kent, Oxford and Surrey.

This achievement sees the University ranked among the top 20 per cent of the 299 HE providers in the UK who entered the Teaching Excellence Framework.

The independent panel of experts judged that the University of Portsmouth "delivers consistently outstanding teaching, learning and outcomes for its students. It is of the highest quality found in the UK."

The University credits its success to offering a distinctive student experience, outstanding support for its students, and embedding innovative technology in courses designed to prepare students for successful careers.

Across the University students learn in state-of-the-art facilities as used in industry and the professions with our programmes of study shaped by input from employers and our students. For example, the University's Centre for Simulation in Health and Care prepares students for careers in a challenging and ever-changing health sector through an impressive suite of simulators and resources, such as a life-size 3D virtual patient, two fully functioning acute hospital wards and a bespoke emergency ambulance.

Professor Graham Galbraith, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Portsmouth, said:

"We welcome the introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework and are delighted that the University of Portsmouth has been given the highest 'Gold' rating. For too long universities' reputations have been overly-dependent on their research and 'prestige' which can often be code for being old. The UK is recognised as a world leader in the provision of higher education and this new government rating provides an opportunity to celebrate and recognise great teachers and great teaching that lead to positive student outcomes. It offers important new information to help students make the right choices about where to study. This Gold award supports us in continuing to build close links between teaching, course content, skills needed regionally and the industries set to drive growth as part of the UK's future Industrial Strategy."
Turkey decides to stop teaching evolution to its students until their university level curriculum, deeming it controversial and too complex to understand. Critics say this undermines the secular foundation of the Turkish state.