IN A DRAMATIC victory for rational thought over mysticism, the government has decreed that creationism cannot be taught as science in any existing or future academy or free school.
A new set of funding agreements released in June notes the requirement for academies to provide a broad and balanced curriculum. Pointing out that creationism flies in the face of established scientific evidence, and that it does not accurately and consistently use the scientific method, the document concludes “...as such it should not be presented to pupils at the Academy as a scientific theory”.
It is one legacy of the Blair government’s promotion of religious schools that creationism could have been taught in 21st-century schools. Now this simple clause within a dry treatise on funding means publicly funded schools may no longer teach creationism as evidence-based theory. ■