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> 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> 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> 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> 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> 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> 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> 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> PESHAWAR, Pakistan: In a second-grade classroom, decorated with colourful posters of letters, numbers and animals, students were reciting English sentences using the future tense. Down the hall, kindergartners were enjoying a lunchtime party with cupcakes and funny hats.

But something was missing from this picture of studious nurturing. In many classes at the Pak-Turk International School last week, the regular teachers from Turkey were absent. They had been banned from the premises after the Pakistani government abruptly announced on November 15 that they had five days to leave the country.

Since then, the expulsion orders against about 100 Turkish teachers and their families have been challenged in provincial courts, and most have been granted temporary visa extensions.

The Peshawar High Court issued a temporary injunction on the expulsions in November and later extended it until December 13.

But despite criticism from international rights groups and Pakistani educators, all expect to be forced to leave, and some said they fear being harassed and arrested if they return to Turkey.

“We are really sad about our teachers. They give us parties. They give us love. We don’t want them to go,” said Marosh Zishan, 8, whose English class was being taught by a substitute Pakistani teacher.

Asked what the second-graders had learnt from their Turkish teachers, Malisha Shaheed, 7, stood up eagerly. “Not to fight,” she said.

The teachers at Pak-Turk International in Peshawar, and at 27 other such schools with 11,000 students across Pakistan, have not been accused of doing anything wrong.

The private schools, established in the 1990s by Turkey’s Gulenist movement, are rated among the best in Pakistan. They meet British university exam standards, and many Pakistani professionals send their children there.

But this summer, the teachers were caught up in an international controversy, stemming from a failed military coup in Turkey in July. After the uprising was quelled, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unleashed a crackdown in which thousands of academics, lawyers and political activists were arrested.

Erdogan also singled out the Gulenists as having influenced the army to rebel and denounced their leader, Fethullah Gulen, as a mastermind of the revolt. Gulen, 77, a Turkish Muslim cleric, has lived in exile in Pennsylvania for 17 years. He condemned the uprising, writing in the New York Times that his philosophy is “antithetical to armed rebellion.”

Still, Gulen loyalists had worked for years to infiltrate Turkish institutions, according to analysts in Turkey. Many in the police and judiciary used their positions to target military and political leaders, including Erdogan allies.

Erdogan’s international stature has plummeted since the crackdown, but he remains a valued ally of Pakistan. In mid-November he was welcomed here for a high-profile visit.

He addressed a session of Parliament, where he denounced the Gulenists as a “bloody terrorist group” and warned that they could also endanger Pakistan. Before arriving he requested that the teachers be expelled, and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif complied.

The Pak-Turk schools are part of Gulen’s Hizmet programme, which has educational and social welfare projects in numerous countries. Gulen’s teachings have a strong Islamic component, but Hizmet publications and members describe it as a “civil society movement” that promotes “human values” including empathy, mutual respect and community service.

Many Pakistani parents of Pak-Turk students have vocally protested the government’s move, participating in demonstrations in various cities over the past several weeks. They insist that the schools do not promote any radical religious ideas, and they praise the Turkish influence as building moral character in the young.

“My children have been going here for four years, and I have never heard anything about the Gulenists,” said Mohammad Zubair, a medical doctor and hospital official in Peshawar who said he chose Pak-Turk over several other highly ranked private schools. “They teach ethical values and build good citizens. This is completely unfair.”

Mohammad Aqeel, 24, who attended the Peshawar school and now teaches there, called the visa cancellations “a shameful event” that had compromised Pakistan’s independence and damaged its educational standards.

“There is no foreign ideology here,” he said. “I love this school. It grooms us to be good human beings as well as students.”

The Pakistani government has not fully explained its action, but government lawyers have described it as a “foreign policy matter” and noted that Pakistan has the right to not renew foreign visas.

Officials have also suggested that little harm is being done to the students, since the schools will remain open.

Critical analysts, however, said it was strictly a move to please Erdogan, who is close to Sharif and supports Pakistan in its rivalry with India.

Amnesty International condemned the expulsion order, saying Pakistan “needs more classrooms and more teachers, not a politically motivated decision to purge educators at the behest of the Turkish government.” Pakistan’s state school system is poorly funded and equipped, and millions of children work instead.

The Pak-Turk Educational Foundation immediately challenged the expulsion order in Pakistani courts, which have responded in various ways. The Islamabad High Court said the group should petition the Interior Ministry for visa extensions but noted that allowing foreigners to remain is “the sole prerogative of any state.”

Meanwhile, the teachers remain in limbo, suddenly jobless in Pakistan and fearful of what awaits them in Turkey. One faculty couple with two children, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal, said they now rarely leave the rented house they share with another Turkish family.

“If people at home know I work here, it will be enough to send me straight to jail,” said the husband, 30, who has taught math in PakTurk schools for the past several years.
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.