Creationist school closes… for lack of students

It used to teach its students that the universe was only 6,000 years old; and that far from becoming extinct 65 million years ago, dinosaurs actually co-existed with early humans, and even helped build the pyramids of Ancient Egypt.

But despite being fully licensed as a local educational facility even after these revelations became public in 2009, the Accelerated Christian Academy of Mosta is today no longer operational as a school.

A spokesman for the Education Ministry confirmed this week that - contrary to reports which have surfaced in the online social media - the school did not close its doors on account of its clearly questionable science curriculum.

"The ACA underwent an intensive due diligence exercise in the second half of 2009 because the school was not honouring licence conditions, including the requirements of its Head of School and staff," the ministry official told MaltaToday. "After exhaustive consultations the school administration came in line with regulations, and a new school licence was issued on 2 December 2009."

The ministry official also denied that the Quality and Assurance Department had received any complaints regarding the teaching of science. Nor was any reference made to the Council of Europe's Resolution 1580, which specifically urges European member states "to firmly oppose the teaching of creationism as a scientific discipline on an equal footing with the theory of evolution and in general resist presentation of creationist ideas in any discipline other than religion."

The reason for the ACA's recent closure turns out to be far simpler and more mundane.

"According to the Department's data there are no students currently at this school."

Accelerated Creationism

The Accelerated Christian Academy was catapulted to international notoriety in 2009, after articles in this newspaper quoted its director, Pastor Vince Fenech, as claiming that 'dinosaurs helped build the pyramids'...: among other eyebrow-raising anomalies in the same school's curriculum.

Those articles quickly went viral, and have since been quoted in debates - especially in the United States - on whether creationism should be taught in schools.

"Of course the 'dinoceros' existed," Fenech told this newspaper, in his own unique pronunciation of the world. "It is mentioned in the Book of Job. They were used to help build the pyramids..."

Fenech insisted that this latter observation was only "his personal belief", and that it did not form part of the school's curriculum. But the ACA's curriculum was not exactly free from fanciful reinventions of history. Students - aged between four and 30, often sharing the same classes - were taught that the entire universe was created in 4004 BC.

Biblical myths such as Noah's Ark were taught as true historical events, and the scientifically accepted tenet of evolution by natural selection was (predictably enough) rejected out of hand.

In its place students were taught to accept a strict literal interpretation of the Bible: according to which, the first man was created directly by God out of dust... and woman was created separately, as an afterthought, using one of Adam's ribs.

Even traditional Biblical orthodoxy was occasional defied in the process. "The first woman did not have a name," Pastor Fenech insisted in 2009. "She was made from Adam's rib and was known only as 'woman'. She got the name 'Eve' only after the expulsion from the Garden of Eden..."

While no longer the director of a functional school, Fenech regularly regales audiences with such views at the Full Gospen Praise Centre, Malta.