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Religious Education in Slovakia

According to the Slovak democratic constitution (1993) and the following Legal Acts – the Concord with the Vatican, signed in 2003 and the Agreement of all registered churches with the state, signed in 2004 - there is a cooperation between the state and churches in the provision of Religious Education. The churches have the right to educate the whole range of generations via a) church education in church parishes; b) establishing their own schools; c) teaching religious education to all children that are registered for this subject by their patents, in public schools; d) influencing young generation via leisure/out of school activities

History and organization of RE

In the time of socialism Religious Education (RE) ceased to exist as a compulsory subject, but it was never officially banned in Slovak schools. RE became a voluntary subject. Parents who wanted their children to attend RE lesson in schools had to register their children for these classes. There was a certain kind of persecution for doing so. After the political changes in 1989 the question arose on how to teach religion at schools and what conditions had to be met.

The Slovak Parliament decided that there should be two parallel alternatives for all children in state schools: RE and Ethical Education. At the upper stage of primary schools (age 10 - 15) and the first two years of the secondary school (age 15 - 17) the choice of the families between these two alternative subjects for their children has been compulsory. At the beginning both RE and Ethics were electives in the early primary years (age 6-10) and the last years at the secondary school (age 17 - 19). According to the Act from 2004 the compulsory choice between RE and Ethics applies already to the primary level (age 6-10). In the last two school years at the secondary level RE lessons are still voluntary. Until 2008 the number of RE lessons used to be one lesson per week. Since 2008 when the new school reform started to take place the state education programme guarantees only one lesson once in two weeks. More lessons can be added according to the flexible educational programme of a specific school.

In the school year 2004/2005 in state schools three times more first year pupils chose RE than chose Ethics. In church schools almost 100% of pupils chose RE, whereas in private schools just the opposite occurred– only 4% of families chose RE. Across all primary school years, there were about twice as many pupils opting for RE rather than Ethics in state schools. In private schools these figures are reversed. Almost all pupils from the church schools chose RE.

To sum up, RE and Ethics are considered to be ‘compulsory optional’ subjects, which means that all parents have to make a choice between RE and ethics in state schools. Though RE and Ethics should both be part of the school timetable, thanks to organizational difficulties RE often takes place either very early in the morning or late in the afternoon, which is not the best time. This is because of the variety of REs and the fact that most of the RE teachers are not on regular staff and come into schools as external teachers.

Characteristics of Religious education in state schools

Religious education (RE) in Slovakia has always been confessional. It has been focused primarily on teaching into a specific religious confession. It has always resembled the way of teaching religious education in church schools and even the church catechesis in parishes. For years the Slovak curricula of religious education have been aiming to develop children’s involvement in a certain, just Christian denomination – nowadays they can practically chose from Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, Lutheran, Orthodox or Reformed religious education. But also there are very rare exceptions (in cities) when the school decided to fulfil children’s spiritual needs by a wider and more general approach to religion. Anyway, the children in Slovak schools are expected to learn their faith not only cognitively, but mainly “from inside“. The partial aims are to develop children’s inner religiosity, their personal relation to God through Jesus Christ, not only on cognitive but as well non-cognitive dimension of acquiring Christian faith, on the experiential learning about God and the Bible, on the positive concept of truth, etc. This approach requires the implementation of a wide range of adequate cognitive, affective and expressive teaching methods. The teachers, though paid from the state budget, should be members of a certain denomination. The evidence of it is a canonical commission from their own church who they represent.

The aims, the syllabus contents and the textbooks for teaching religious education are, basically, the responsibility of the specific denominations. Before implementing a curriculum in schools, it has to be officially approved by the church representatives and subsequently signed by the Ministry of Education. The school inspectors monitor the fulfilment of aims, the behaviour of the pupils and the formal side of teaching. The state does not interfere into the contents of the subject. That means, e.g., that the extent of information about other denominations and religions are fully in hands of a specific denomination.

On the other hand, the concept of “teaching about religion” is not been excluded and is also taking place in Slovakia, though in a limited extent. Generally, the teaching about other denominations and religions inside “Religious education” both in public and denominational schools has had a very small proportion in their curriculum. So being aware of the restrained approach of denominational religious education towards teaching other religions, the state policy is to mediate a certain quota of cognitive knowledge about religions to all secondary school students in Slovakia. This subject matter is part of the compulsory subjects, e. g. “Citizenship” or “History”. It aims to deepen students’ knowledge about major world religions, their origin, their religious texts, doctrines and values; to help them to understand the behaviour of members of various religions and so to develop their analytical and comparative thinking skills.

The concept of “teaching from religion” has been so far the least applied concept in religious education in Slovakia. It would allow the students to learn and find source of meaning and life orientation in various religions, not only in one’s own denomination. It would build on the knowledge of one’s own religion (first concept) and on a certain amount of objective information (second concept) about other denominations and religions. Thus it can develop critical thinking of students by trying to understand and solve problems with the help of various religions. Teaching methods used in this approach are not only cognitive, but also affective, including empathy and tenderness. It could develop the ethical and spiritual awareness of the students and their informed openness to dialogue.

The aims of RE, the contents of RE syllabus and the books for teaching RE are, basically, the responsibility of the specific denominations. According to the Concord and the Agreement between state and religious organizations, the state subsidizes the production of new textbooks. The churches produce their own sets of textbooks (Catholic, Lutheran, Orthodox, and recently even for Adventist children).

Recently almost all of the existing RE curricula underwent the process of their transformation. The analysis and comparison of the goals and contents of the present RE syllabuses in Slovak state schools reveal significant common ground:

a) Aims

All churches aim to lead the child:

b) Content

The following topics appear in most syllabuses: God, creation, fall, sin, Biblical stories, Jesus Christ – life and teaching, Church, Creed, ten commandments, love, prayer, fellowship.

c) Methodology

There has been an evident shift developing away from the traditional way of teaching towards the use of more productive teaching methods, based on experiential learning. There have been several experiments with the project method, heuristic methods and the application of critical thinking (according to Bloom’s taxonomy).

RE in church schools

Speaking about religious education, church schools in Slovakia comprise a totally different category of schools though they are also subsidized from the state budget and have to fulfil the same requirements as public schools. Howbeit not all of their students are religious, religious education is compulsory for all of them and there is a double amount of teaching lessons in the curriculum. Unlike in with public schools, it is assessed with marks just like other school subjects. In the secondary church schools RE can be a subject of the final exams (at the age of 19).

RE teachers

The RE teachers should achieve the same level of professional training as the other teachers. The requirement is both the Bachelor and Master Degrees. For pragmatic reasons, the teachers are prepared for a combination of at least two school subjects (RE and maths; RE and Slovak; RE and music; etc.). This means that one third of their study is devoted to RE, one third to the other subject and the last block of their studies consists of psychological and pedagogical subjects. They can be either graduates of theological schools with the pedagogical and psychological supplemental studies or they may be graduates of theological departments at teacher training faculties.

The state is legally obliged to provide a subsidy for RE teachers’ salaries. So all the churches that have their own syllabus authorized by the church authorities as well as approved by the Ministry of Education have also the right to ask head-teachers of any school to provide an RE class focused on their own church/denomination and to ordain their own teachers. On the other hand, the choice might be limited in a certain way if the groups are too small (a desirable size of the group would be a minimum of 12 children, but the classes should be offered also in case of a much smaller number). Naturally there would be a financial restriction if all denominations decided to teach their own RE in one school. That is why some minority churches are trying to agree on a mixed common group of children if they want to have a paid teacher. Other smaller denominations would still prefer to teach their own RE even as unpaid volunteers.

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