The caliphatization continues.[DW] ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
will stop teaching Darwin's theory of evolution in high schools. Secular Turks are alarmed that their country is taking an increasingly Islamist direction under President Erdogan's authoritarian leadership.
A chapter entitled "Beginning of Life and Evolution" will be deleted from the standard biology textbooks used in high schools in Turkey, with the explanation that the "controversial" material was difficult to understand for average students, education authorities have said.
"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," Alparslan Durmus, head of the national education board, said.
The material will remain available only to students who are on the path to go on to university, aged 18 or 19, he added. The changes are part of a new curriculum that will go into effect at the start of the 2017-2018 academic year, which was formulated in accordance with "Turkish values," Durmus said.
From embracing religious headscarves at some schools to shifting curricula, school education in Turkey has grown increasingly religious under the leadership of President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
's Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP). The issue of teaching evolution has been fought over for years.