Creationism
in Voluntary Aided schools
Creationism is taught at a
state maintained [voluntary aided] Seventh Day Adventist school in Tottenham,
north London.
John Loughborough [secondary
mixed school] began as an independent school but in 1998 became the first
school run by a minor Christian denomination to receive state funding.
"Science teachers will teach
what the curriculum asks them to, but the school has a particular religious
supposition that man was created by God. We don't apologise for that,"
said Keith Davidson, director of education at the British Union Conference
of Seventh Day Adventists, which runs the school.
"Just like other schools we
also explain the concept of evolution. Everyone is free to have their
view. What I find amazing is the intolerance and arrogance of people who
say you can only believe in evolution and that's all you can teach."
Mr Davidson, a registered Ofsted
inspector, added: "The way science works is that you set up a hypothesis
and test it and see if it is validated...There's absolutely no concrete
evidence to prove evolution." He said he was in informal discussions with
local education authorities about moving other Adventist schools into
the state maintained sector.
State funded Muslim schools
are also believed to teach creationism alongside evolution.
[The Guardian, 19/3/02]
Ibrahim Hewitt, of the Association
of Muslim Schools, said that his members' schools, including six state-funded
ones, taught children about Darwin, because they had to, but they also
taught a different, Koranic view.
The state-funded Seventh Day
Adventist school, John Loughborough in north London, takes a similar,
biblical, line, in apparent conflict with the National Curriculum.
And so do the high-performing
Hasmonean High Schools for girls and boys, which educate more than 1000
strict Orthodox jews in north London. Last week, Rabbi Mordechai Fachler,
director of Jewish Studies at the boys' school, made it clear that he
would prefer Darwin to be dropped from the national curriculum.
[The Independent on Sunday,
17/3/02]
Dr A.
Majid Katme, a spokesman on ethical issues for Islamic Concern, a group
which aims to inform the media on Muslim questions, said on Tuesday: "There
are clearly huge holes in the fossil records, and missing links in the
theory. Only true sciences do fit with the divine teachings, not false
ones or theories like Darwin theory."
[Church Times, 22/3/02]
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