LONDON - Advocacy groups are outraged after the department of education of the US state of Arkansas told state high schools not to offer an advanced placement (AP) course on African American history, The Guardian has reported.

On Monday, the first day of the 2023-2024 school year for many Arkansas public schools, the department announced that it would not be granting credit for the AP African American history class, The Guardian said on Tuesday, citing the Arkansas Times.

The department said the course may violate the state's Literacy, Empowerment, Accountability, Readiness, Networking and Safety (LEARNS) Act, a new law passed this spring under Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Republican and former White House press secretary during Donald Trump's presidency, according to the report.

The LEARNS Act limits curriculum on a range of topics including subjects that would "indoctrinate students with ideologies, such as Critical Race Theory," it said.

Derrick Johnson, president and chief executive officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, called the decision "abhorrent" in a statement to The Guardian.

"The sad reality is that these politicians are determined to neglect our nation's youth in service of their own political agendas," he said.