Something good could come of a Tory government in the UK, it seems. The party wants to do away with schools that teach creationism as if it were science.
Michael Gove, the party’s shadow schools secretary, told BBC1’s Andrew Marr that “fundamentalist groups” who taught in a way that undermined “democratic values” would be challenged, and if necessary, closed down.
according to the think tank Ekklesia.
“To my mind you cannot have a school which teaches creationism,” he told the presenter. “And one thing that we will make absolutely clear is that you can not have schools that are set up which teach people things which are clearly at variance with what we know to be scientific fact.
“But critically, inspection is key here,” he continued. “We do have some schools at the moment – independent schools – that have been set up by religious groups. You mentioned Islamic groups. Let’s be clear, there are other fundamentalist groups as well which have schools in the private sector. If those schools are properly regulated and inspected, then we can ensure that anyone who teaches in a way that undermines our democratic values can be brought to public light, challenged, and if necessary, closed down.”
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Monday, 15 February 2010
2 comments:
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This is welcome news and shows that the Tories are not completely beyond the pale. Unfortunately, as I understand it, they are even keeer than New Labour, to increase the number of faith schools.
ReplyDeleteAll those standing at the general election should we asked to confirm that they will personally supportexcluding creationism from science classes.
ReplyDelete