Alparslan Durmus, head of the National Education Board, said that a chapter titled "Beginning of Life and Evolution" will be removed from standard biology textbooks used in schools and only be available to university students who are around 18 or 19 years old.
"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.
Christian and Muslim creationists, who believe God created the world and all living things, reject Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution.
However, critics say that this is yet another example of President Erdogan and the Islamist AK Party imposing their conservative, Islam-oriented agenda. Another example of Erdogan's conservative agenda are his many measures against alcohol, which is banned in the Muslim religion. Alcohol taxes have increased and flag carrier Turkish airlines no longer serves alcohol on some domestic flights, Reuters reported.
Mehhmet Balik, chairman of the Union of Education and Science Workers, condemned the new curriculum, saying, "The new policies that ban the teaching of evolution and requiring all schools to have a prayer room, these actions destroy the principle of secularism and the scientific principles of education."
Other critics are concerned that Turkish students will no longer be able to understand basic science, while some academics drew attention to the fact that the only other country that has eliminated evolutionary science from its curriculum is Saudi Arabia.
An organization called Egitim-Is ["Education Work"] has also expressed concern at the curriculum amendments, emphasizing how the changes undermine the work of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder who Turkey who preached secularity.
