The dispute between the Episcopate and the Ministry of Education is getting worse. It concerns the regulation on combining religious education classes. – School is for students, not for the comfort of the Episcopate – says the Minister of Education Barbara Nowacka, noting that “the organization of religious education classes is the responsibility of the ministry”. And what do the regulations say about this? A material by Ewa Wagner from the magazine “Polska i Świat”. The entire issue is available on TVN24 GO.
September is just around the corner, and the dispute over religious education classes is not dying down. The Polish Episcopal Conference has filed a petition to the Supreme Court regarding regulations on combining religious education classeswhen fewer than seven students want to study it in a class. At the same time, the regulation introduces the principle that primary school students can be combined into a group including students from grades I–III or grades IV–VI or grades VII and VIII.
Minister of Education Barbara Nowacka explained that the change “only means that if a group has more than seven people, it can be combined with another group that also has more than seven people.”
The spokesman for the Ministry of Education said that the regulation is to help build a schedule and is not prescriptive in nature. – The principal can combine students into inter-unit and inter-grade groups, but he does not have to do so. The principal knows the needs of a given local community best, he can use this provision, but he absolutely does not have to – said Piotr Otrębski.
Key phrase
Lawyers have spoken out on the matter. Dr. Hab. Paweł Borecki from the Department of Religious Law at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw said that “Article 12, paragraph two, i.e. this formulation in the agreement, in practice turned out to be a guarantor of rights in the law-making dimension not of the Catholic Church, but of a religious minority.”
The minister responsible for education and upbringing, in consultation with the authorities of the Catholic Church and the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church and other churches and religious associations, shall determine, by way of a regulation, the conditions and manner of performing by schools the tasks referred to in paragraph 1.
The key wording is “in agreement”. – The 1992 regulation is imperfect. The authorizing provision, i.e. Article 12 of the Education System Act, is also imperfect, but it is protected by the presumption of constitutionality – explains Dr. Hab. Paweł Borecki.
– The regulation is fully compliant with the law. Moreover, I would like to remind you that what raises doubts among some groups, i.e. the term “in agreement”, was decided by Constitutional Tribunal in 1993, which clearly states: agreement does not mean consent – said the spokesman MEN.
Minister of Education: School is for students, not for the comfort of the episcopate
The Episcopate claims that there was no agreement. – In issuing the regulation, it was limited to allowing representatives of the interested Churches and other associations to express their opinions – said Fr. Leszek Gęsiak from the Polish Episcopal Conference.
The Ministry informs on its website that consultations on the project have taken place and that it has responded to the allegations made by the Commissioner for Human Rights.
– School is for students, not for the comfort of the episcopate, which completely confuses the legal orders. This means that the organization of lessons, all of them, is handled by the ministry – explains Barbara Nowacka.
Błaszczak (PiS): we are preparing a complaint
PiS MPs declare that they will take their own steps. Mariusz Blaszczak announced that “the parliamentary club of Law and Justice will file a complaint to the Constitutional Tribunal”. – We are preparing such a complaint in this case. We do not agree to breaking the law. Namely, we are dealing with the filing of Catholics – said Błaszczak.
Dr Iga Kazimierczyk, president of the Space for Education Foundation, said that “the number of children who take part (…) in religion classes is decreasing and will probably continue to decrease, so sooner or later this problem will have to be solved somehow.”
Supreme Court is to take a position on the matter in the coming days. The regulation is already in force.
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