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RE in the Romanian School System

RE is a part of the curricula domain "Human beings and Society”. The RE syllabuses have a confessional character and are organized according to a scheme that is given by the Ministry of Education. The legal status of this discipline offers to all students, in pre-universitary education, the opportunity to attend RE classes, having the freedom, according to the Constitution, to attend or not these classes. The decision to opt out is rare, because 99% of the population belongs to a confession or a religion. For each new school year, parents choose which confessional RE their child will attend and this does not have to be their own confession. All confessions and religious communities that are accredited by the state can offer RE in public school.

The actual legal status of RE is based on Education Law no. 84/1995, which stipulates that RE teaching in primary education is compulsory, optional in secondary school and elective in high school and vocational schools. There is one hour of RE per week.

The common objectives for RE confessional syllabuses are:

The training of RE teachers takes place in the theological faculties at the state universities. RE teachers have to meet the legal requirements placed on all teachers. The universities provide the future RE teachers with a pedagogical module of 4 semesters, besides the subjects taught in the respective faculty. After following this module, the graduate receives a qualification in RE teaching, obligatory for teaching RE. The General Inspectorate organises exams for the vacant places of RE teachers, in every area. The candidate must have the permission of the local religious authority to take part at the exam. RE teachers are paid by the state.

The historical development of RE in Romania

In 1948, with the establishment of communism in Romania, theological and religious education was removed from the official educational system, the first being left into the Church’s charge, monitored and marginalized, and the second, not only being removed but replaced with an “atheistic-scientific” education. The result was that, for theological schools, recruitment was controlled, restrictive and discriminatory on grounds of political affiliation, social origin and social status. In the context of lack of RE education, the youth was loosing its religious, moral and cultural identity.

After the Revolution of December 1989, things started to re-enter normality. Religious education was first organized in the churches, and elective in schools. Interest to study Religion has increased. During the academic year 1990-1991, the Ministry of Education and Science introduced "religious-moral education" as an object of study in primary and secondary schools, with an optional and elective status, one hour at two weeks. In 1991, recording the increased interest of the students and their parents for this discipline, the Ministry of Education and Science provided the teaching of this discipline one hour per week.

For the academic year 1992-1993, the Ministry of Education and Science regulates a number of issues regarding the teaching of Religion in Primary School and Gymnasium, as well the employment and the salaries of those who teach this discipline. Since 1993, the Ministry of Education has agreed the subject to be called “religie” (Religion).

The curricula for classes in Primary School and Gymnasium were approved in June 1999, and in 2000, for the Upper Secondary School (9 to 12 grade). The last revision of RE curricula for all levels and religions was accomplished in August 2008.

RE Challenges

RE has gone through times of challenges and difficulties in the last few years. Thus, in 2006, there began a real campaign to withdraw the icons and the religious symbols from the schools. In November 2006, at the request of the philosophy teacher Emil Moise from Buzau, the National Council for the Struggle against Discrimination (CNCD) has decided that the presence of the icons and of the religious symbols in state schools would constitute discrimination against the atheistic and agnostic persons or those ofother religions/denominations than the Orthodox.

The decision was contested both by the Ministry of Education and Research, (as a state institution directly affected by the recommendation of CNCD) and the "Coalition for the Respect of the Religious Freedom”, a body without legal personality, consisting of over 150 non-governmental organizations and thousands of Romanian citizens.

After a public debate on this subject and the decision of the High Court of Justice (11 June 2008), the presence of religious symbols in the school was considered a legitimate one and is permitted. Paradoxically enough, the icons’ debate started in Buzau, an area with an orthodox majority (98.79% of the people are of Orthodox confession) and not in a multiethnic and multi-confessional society such is the region of Transylvania.

Recently, in Romania there was initiated a debate about the content of RE textbooks. This time, the debate was on a reduced scale and had no real effects. According to a non-governmental organization, some RE textbooks promote violent behavior among students or an increased degree of intolerance, through the images they display (the way in which they present God and the divine justice). Facing this accusation, the teachers of RE demonstrated that is nothing wrong about the content of RE textbooks, but they respect the Christian moral values, which are of high importance for the civic space.

Florin Tomoioaga
tomoioagaf@yahoo.com

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