Due to changes in the organization of religion lessons, full -time jobs may lose. catechists – a member of the Board of the Secular Catechist Association Dariusz Kwiecień told PAP. He added that the situation of religion teachers is aggravated by the fact that the Ministry of National Education gave them too little time to retrain.
According to the decision of the Ministry of National Education, religion lessons can take place in inter -department groups from September this year. The ministry also decided that the teaching of religion and ethics will take place in the dimension of one lesson per week, and not two, as today, before or after compulsory educational classes. The new regulations will apply from September 1.
Dariusz Kwiecień told PAP that Due to changes in the organization of religion lessons, full -time jobs may lose. religion teachers. – These are forecasts for now. We do not know exactly how many catechists will be unemployed. We will know hard data in October. However, we are already getting information from our friends that it is a very hard, nervous time for them – he assessed.
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According to April, catechists who have reached retirement age are the first to go or can go to bridging retirement.
– I know about a few people who intend to go to the so -called Leave to improve health, which teachers working full -time can take every 7 years. Part – just like me – will have reduced hours. From September I will only have a part -time, and not all, as before. After 20 years, my friend will simply lose her job and will be unemployed – he said.
According to April, the statements of Minister Barbara Nowacka that catechists can retrain were “misleading” because they were left too little time for the retraining. He reminded that the ordinance of the Ministry of National Education, which introduced one hour of religion or ethics a week from September 1, 2025, was published on January 17, 2025. In practice, this means that religion teachers were only half a year.
– It's definitely too short to get new entitlements. Although some of us have the rights to teach other subjects, but in the villages and in small towns the full -time jobs are being hosted – he reserved.
“The situation of catechists does not improve the appearance of a new subject, i.e. health education”
According to April, the situation of catechists is not improved by the appearance of a new subject, i.e. health education. As he pointed out, most catechists do not want to acquire the right to teach this subject, because it contains components that conflict with their worldview.
According to a member of the board of the Secular Catechist Association The obligation to place religion lessons in the first or last lesson in the network of classes will cause a number of problems for both students, catechists and school heads. – It is really not easy to arrange the lesson plan so that religion for all classes falls at the beginning or at the end. Men claims that it is for the sake of students who do not go to religion or ethics so that they do not have to wait. What about students who want to walk? Now they will have to wait, they will have windows, because it will not be possible to arrange a plan differently – he said.
According to April, the Ministry of National Education decisions are dictated by “ideological struggle with Christian education.” – The point is that there is no upbringing at school. And yet it is needed for students. Parents see this, which is why under the bill assuming that lessons in religion or ethics should be mandatory, we managed to collect over half a million signatures – he emphasized.
He reminded that the civic bill “yes for religion and ethics at school”, which assumes two mandatory hours of religion or ethics lessons per week, the Association of Secular Catechists submitted in the Sejm in June.
– We are currently meeting parliamentary clubs to convince them to support the project. We are after talks with the PiS club, we already have the promise of meeting PSL. We also care about meeting the clubs of the ruling coalition. We sent them information about the project – he said.
He noted that he hopes that the first reading of the civic bill will take place in the Sejm in September.
What will change in schools from September 1?
Pursuant to the new regulations, from September 1 there will be only one hour of religion or ethics a week in schoolsbefore or after compulsory classes. The Ministry of Education justifies that the new solution will improve the situation of students who had a forced break between compulsory educational classes during the day of school education and had to wait for the next compulsory classes.
According to Barbara Nowacka's education, the ordinances organizing the functioning were “socially expected for a long time”. “In particular in high schools, we have seen a very large outflow of children and youth from religion, children and young people overloaded with hours, which they spend in schools, so now they will be able to choose” – said Nowacka in March this year.
PAP asked the Ministry of Education about a comment on the civic bill “Yes for religion and ethics at school”. The deputy head of the ministry Katarzyna Lubnauer evaluated the project negatively. In her opinion, he means “limiting parents' right to raise a child, which is also written in the constitution.”
“We are in favor of parents' right to choose from, and it means that a parent can enroll a child for ethics or religion, both of these items or for any of them, it has been so for many years,” said the deputy minister. As she pointed out, “we must remember that every parent can, according to their worldview, decide about raising a child, and in a situation when the same teacher conducts catechesis and ethics lessons, the choice of parents would only be an apparent choice.” She added that the content of upbringing and morality is present in the school's pedagogical principles.
Iwona Żurek (PAP)
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