Recently the United States Education Department has opened up an investigation into the curriculum of the Middle East studies program which is collectively run by the University of North Carolina and Duke University. According to the letters presented by the government, the course content has actively promoted Islam, but there is nothing substantial about Judaism or Christianity.
The federal intervention is very rare in education and especially the college courses, but the universities have been warned to re-shape its course or lose its federal grant, which was estimated to be around $235,000 last year.
However, many people have argued that by such interference of politics in the college courses and funding, the Trump government is setting up a very wrong example. The U.N.C officials have responded that they will look into the changes demanded by the Education Department, although Duke University didn’t want to speak on this issue,
Betsy DeVos, who serves as the Education Secretary has revealed that she received a complaint by George Holding, a member of the Republican party and representative of North Carolina that the course contained several anti-Israel biases and anti-semitic statements in it.
Education should be kept as far as possible from any politics
In response to this, she ordered a probe into the course content and was very disturbed by Holding’s statement. The Education department feels that there is so much less about the struggle faced by Christians, Jews and several other religious minorities in Israel and other countries.
All in all, the investigating team has found that the federal money which is used for the course is completely unqualified for the taxpayers. Several of the articles, sources, and papers have been disqualified by considering them irrelevant to the goals
The National Resource Center Grant program has given funding of $22 million to major universities, in which more than 15% is for the middle-east studies. The department has asked the universities to make suitable changes in the curriculum for the coming year so that it promotes the nation’s security and its interests.
