Parliament Workbench

Petition · PE01764 · Session 5

Include evolutionary studies within the primary school curriculum

Closed Submitted 16 Oct 2019 Education
Signatures
0
40 online signatures with a country
Comments
5
Considered
1 meeting
in the Official Report

What it asks

Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to add evolutionary studies to the primary school curriculum.

What the petitioner did first

I have spoken with my local MSP who is in support of my petition.

Where it was considered

Official Report
  1. 10 Sep 2020
    Public Petitions Committee
    Continued Petitions
    1 mention

Signatures by country

40 online signatures
  1. Scotland31 77.5%
  2. United Kingdom8 20%
  3. England1 2.5%

Comments

5 comments, oldest first
  1. Neil Barber 20 Oct 2019
    There is now a live petition by James Robertson on behalf of Families in Support of Evolutionary Studies which Edinburgh Secular Society is pleased to endorse.
    It proposes to teach primary school children about evolutionary science in addition to important learning about world religions.
    While religious creation myths have poetic and metaphorical value they of course contain no literal truth.
    Far from being nihilistic, an understanding of the beautiful principles of evolution can be the very foundation of a meaningful life as, free from the distracting belief that purpose is given by a supernatural being, we can set out to define our own and in doing so, maximise every moment of our brief and lucky existences.
  2. Colin Downes 20 Oct 2019
    Maths, history and anything factual should be taught in schools. There should be no room for hypothesis such as creatism
  3. Hannah Morris 23 Oct 2019
    Science, facts and history should not be distorted. Even some religious families may want the science taught to their children.
  4. Ian M Rodger 23 Oct 2019
    While aware that some schools are introducing this subject into the syllabus, it is too important to be squeezed into the teaching. It should stand alongside other scientific teachings
  5. Morag McCallum 26 Oct 2019
    I think primary school teachers are expected to teach far too much and this will just add to their burden of teaching and reporting. We need to get back to the basics so that children leave primary school being able to read and count. We also need to stop all the formal testing and reporting which takes so much time away from teaching. A Scottish education used to be something to be proud of. Now because of interference by so called experts who know nothing about teaching (curriculum for excellence being a prime example ) Scottish education is one of the poorest in the Europe.