The Education hotel reported on Tuesday that it concluded a public consultation on the organisation of spiritual lessons and ethics in schools. He said that erstwhile it came to reducing spiritual lessons from 2 to 1 a week, MEN and representatives of the Churches remained in their positions.
The Ministry of National Education stated in the Communication that it analysed all the comments submitted. It said that any would be reflected in the wording of the regulations.
"On the question of reducing the hourly dimension of spiritual lessons from 2 to 1 hr a week, the parties – MEN and the commentators of the Church – remained at their posts," the ministry noted.
He argues that “in the belief of MEN, the introduction of 1 hr of religion per week organised at the first or last lesson will make it easier for school principals to organise work in a single shift mode and will benefit students’ welfare”.
At the same time, the Ministry argues that it has taken into account another comments made by the Churches and spiritual unions.
"Although the Churches requested compulsory participation of students in spiritual or ethical lessons, MEN – respecting the constitutional right of parents to rise their children according to their own beliefs – decided that both religion and ethics would stay optional and final assessments of these subjects would not be included in the average rating," she noted. However, the hotel of Barbara Nowacka refers selectively to the rule mentioned here that we should callback the MEN attitude on mandatory aggressive sex education as a mandatory component of the subject wellness education.
The hotel confirmed that the fresh rules for organizing spiritual and ethical lessons would apply from 1 September 2025.
On Monday the Episcopate reported that the Catholic Church did not agree with the government on spiritual lessons. The gathering of the Committee of Common Representatives of the Government of the Republic of Poland and the Polish Episcopal Conference took place at the KEP Secretariat in Warsaw that day. The ecclesiastical organization informed that the gathering was convened due to a deficiency of agreement following discussions within the subcommittee on religion at the school set up by the Joint Commission.
She said that the ecclesiastical side's proposal included "the introduction of the rule of compulsory teaching of religion or ethics due to the request for axiological formation of students". In addition, "as part of the search for compromise, the church side besides proposed a gradual, time-consuming simplification of the teaching dimension of religion in secondary schools, while respecting the rights of staff catechets". "The situation should stay unchanged in primary schools," she added.
The church side besides objected to the government's proposed simplification of spiritual lessons to 1 hr a week. In her opinion, "it is unjustified and discriminatory to adopt the rule that spiritual lessons are to be placed before or after another school activities".
She besides pointed out that "the teaching of religion at school is considered a standard in the vast majority of European countries and 1 of the symbols of freedom change in Poland after 1989".
"The changes introduced, in the opinion of the church side, will consequence in the demolition of the strategy of teaching religion in Polish public schools", she noted in the communication.
She announced that in the face of a breach of the existing legislation, "the church side will take further legal steps".
According to the July amendment to the MEN Regulation on the organisation of spiritual lessons, the school head (preschool) will be able to combine groups of children from different classes and classrooms more easy in spiritual classes. From next year of school in public schools, religion and ethics are expected to take place in 1 hr a week, before or after compulsory education. This is the thought of a task that went into consultation. Currently, the teaching of religion in public schools is organised in 2 lessons per week, and as far as ethics are concerned, the weekly dimension of the hours is determined by the school head.
Source: PAP
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