Bahrain’s educational institutions have been instructed to suspend changes made to the curricula that are “not compatible with Bahrain’s national values designed to protect religion and its core pillars,” upon direction from Prince Salman al-Khalifa, the crown prince and prime minister of the Gulf state.
The announcement, reportedly in line with King Hamad al-Khalifa’s “commitment to protecting the Islamic religion,” came on Tuesday after some critics voiced issues with the inclusion of Israel and changes to the maps of the contested Israeli-Palestinian territories.
BBC Arabic reported on Wednesday that the amended subject matters taught for the primary classes featured a lesson on the normalization of ties between the Gulf state and Israel, and deleted a lesson on Jews.
Various preachers and scholars issued statements calling on the Ministry of Education to reconsider the changes, which likely prompted the high-level order from the crown prince.
State-run Bahrain News Agency (BNA) reported on Wednesday that a team of specialists was assigned to conduct a “comprehensive review of all curricula to verify all modifications and changes that have occurred,” citing the Minister of Education Dr. Mohammed Juma.
