Leading experts and scientists are calling on the Welsh Government to ban the teaching of creationism as science.
The 46 scientists and educators, including Sir David Attenborough , want to ensure that students are taught evolution at primary school and to explicitly ban the teaching of creationism as science in all Welsh state schools.
The Welsh Government's draft national curriculum does not teach children evolution until ages 14 and 15 and, at present, allows creationism and pseudoscience to be taught as science in all schools.
This is not the case in England where evolution is taught at primary level and schools are forbidden from teaching creationism as scientific fact.
Darwin's theory of evolution is well established scientific fact and is as widely accepted as gravity as being correct. At the moment some independent faith schools in Wales do teach creationism as an alternative to evolution.
They will not be affected by any potential ban as they are not a state school.
There are concerns that if a ban is not introduced the integrity of science teaching and young Welsh people's critical thinking will be under threat.
Kathy Riddick is a coordiater at Wales Humanists who helped organise the letter.
She said: "Under the current draft Welsh national curriculum, there is no ban on teaching creationism as science. Coupled with the fact that the curriculum will allow schools much more flexibility over what they teach, this is very worrying, as it could make it much easier for a school, such as a religious school, to openly teach creationism as science.
"This would deny Welsh students the right to a high quality, evidence-based education that enables them to understand how life came to be, to reason scientifically, and to be equipped to tackle misinformation in everyday life.
"We urge the Welsh Government to follow a similar approach to that in England which introduces the teaching of evolution in primary school and makes it explicit that schools cannot teach creationism as scientific fact."
A Welsh Government man said: "Under the current and the new curriculum it is expected that all pupils will be taught evolution. It is wholly incorrect to claim that evolution will only be introduced at 14 -16. We believe that providing children with an understanding of evolution at an early age will help lay foundations for a better understanding of wider scientific concepts later on.
"We note that Humanists UK have broadly welcomed the new draft Curriculum for Wales 2022 and have explicitly said it will mean Wales is ‘leading the way’ in the UK on these issues.”
