A group of scientists has warned Turkey’s Ministry of National Education about the “Origin of Life and Evolution” module taught in the final year of high school education which has been recently excluded from the national curriculum by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Remarking the importance of inclusion of evolutionary biology within the compulsory education curriculum, the scientists’ report that was sent to the Deputy Minister and the members of the concerned commission states that it is an indisputable fact that all species were derived from common ancestors.
The curriculum drafts for science and technology, and biology subjects for middle and high schools, respectively, which were released by the Ministry in January 2017, had a very limited coverage of evolutionary biology compared to the older curriculum.
“Origin of Life and Evolution” module taught in the final year of high school education was removed from the program and replaced with a new module called “Organisms and Environment.” Although this new module was said to be about the effects of environmental factors on the genetic modifications in the genome, it wasn’t known whether it will mention the theory of evolution.
The AKP government is known for its reactionary stance against evolution. “The evolution theory is a scientifically outdated and rejected theory,” said Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş previously. “There is no such compulsion to teach it within the curriculum. It can be taught as one of the theses. But saying ‘those who believe in evolution are progressive; who don’t are reactionary’ is a backward opinion.”
“EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY IS THE SKELETON OF NATURAL SCIENCES”
In the report, it is emphasised that evolutionary biology is the skeleton of natural sciences. Explaining that the concepts of common descent and speciation are uncontroversial and accepted scientific phenomena around the world, the report states that evolutionary biology is a research area investigating and explaining the mechanisms of these phenomena.
The report reveals that evolution is comprehensively covered in the primary and middle school curricula in both developed and developing countries, one example being Iran. The report notes that, in Iran, about 60 pages of the 12th-grade biology course book is composed of evolutionary biology topics, which are given with a most up-to-date content.
The Ministry of National Education, collecting opinions on the curriculum draft, will soon announce the final version of the curriculum program.
The report titled “On the Necessity of Inclusion of Evolutionary Biology within the Compulsory Education Curriculum and Extending Its Scope” was prepared by the commission of academics from the Anthropology Department of Ankara University, Molecular Biology and Genetics Department of Bilkent University, Molecular Biology and Genetics Department of Boğaziçi University, Biology Department of Hacettepe University, and Biological Sciences Department of Middle East Technical University as well as representatives from the Association of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Association of Molecular Biology, and the Association of Solidarity for Biologists.
