David Rogers; with files from Joanne Laucius, National Post; CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, October 24, 2006
OTTAWA - The Quebec Ministry of Education has told unlicensed
Christian evangelical schools that they must teach Darwin's theory of
evolution and sex education or close their doors after a school board
in the Outaouais region complained the provincial curriculum was not
being followed.
"Quebec children are legally required to follow
the provincial curriculum ... but these evangelical schools teach their
own courses on creationism and sexuality that don't follow the Quebec
curriculum," said Pierre Daoust, director-general of the Commission
Scolaire au Coeur-des-Vallees in Thurso, Que.
Mr. Daoust's complaint sparked the province-wide investigation.
Quebec
law requires school boards to assure the Ministry of Education that
every child between the ages six of and 16, with the exception of
home-schooled children, receives an adequate education, he said.
But the 20 elementary and high school students who attend a school
operated by Eglise Evangelique near Saint-Andre-Avellin, Que., are
being educated according to a Bible-based curriculum and their high
school diplomas will not be recognized anywhere in Canada, he said.
Supporters
of Eglise Evangelique, part of the l'Association des eglises
evangeliques du Quebec, counter that the school teaches a "world view"
that is essential for their students.
"We offer a curriculum
based on a Christian world view rather than humanistic world view,"
said Alan Buchanan, chairman of a committee that reorganized the
school's administration this past summer, as well as a former Quebec
public school teacher.
Mr. Buchanan said Eglise Evangelique teaches evolution as well as intelligent design.
"We
want the children to understand what they're going to meet in the
outside world, and also what's wrong with the theory," he said. "We
also teach that a better theory -- that God created the universe and so
on."
While the school doesn't teach sex education, it does teach biology, he said.
"You
have the Christian world view that says sex should only be in the
marriage and a public school system that teaches kids about sexuality,"
Mr. Buchanan said. "We believe students should be taught abstinence."
He
said the school met provincial guidelines during two reviews conducted
in the 1990s, although they were asked to add a Canadian history course.
Ministry
spokeswoman Marie-France Boulay said yesterday the province will
negotiate for several weeks with an unspecified number of evangelical
schools to determine whether they can meet provincial standards that
include the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution.
Ms. Boulay said two or three unlicensed evangelical schools in the Outaouais are affected.
In
addition to the 20 students at Eglise Evangelique, another 40 students
attend an unlicensed evangelical school in Gatineau, Que., which falls
under the jurisdiction of the Commission Scolaire des Draveurs. There
is a third in Hull, Que., Mr. Daoust said. The other school boards
haven't complained.
The Quebec government knows of about 30
unlicensed religious schools in the province, including Hasidic schools
and several evangelical Christian schools in Montreal, said Dermod
Travis, who served on Quebec's Comite sur la langue d'enseignement, a
tribunal that hears special cases from the province's educational
system.
...story continued from canada.com
Story located here.
|