The British government has banned the teaching on creationism as science in its state schools.
The new clauses banning creationism from being taught as scientific fact arrived last week, and state in part that the “requirement for every academy and free school to provide a broad and balanced curriculum in any case prevents the teaching of creationism as evidence based theory in any academy or free school.”
In 2012, the UK government banned all future free schools from teaching creationism as science, but it did not apply the policy to existing free schools and academies.
Under the new laws, all state funded institutions are prohibited from teaching creationism as evidence based.
The new clauses require that “pupils are taught about the theory of evolution, and prevent academy trusts from teaching ‘creationism’ as scientific fact.”
This development comes days after Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt referred to the use of textbooks teaching that homosexuality is a choice in British schools as “dangerous”. The textbooks in question are part of the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) curriculum, which is US based and on its website lists 30 UK schools as participants.
