Education along religious lines?

By law in the Russian Federation the Church is separated from the State. It is not supposed to meddle into affairs of the State and vice versa. But in practice it is not so. (25-SEP-06)

Text: HRH/Moscow, by Yanina Savenko. Sources:svobodanews.ru; rg.ru; echo.msk.ru; regions.ru; newizv.ru. Photos: orthodoxworld.ru; newizv.ru

The Russian Orthodox Church struck a blow against the Russian Federation Ministry of Science and Education. While politicians in Moscow were continuing to discuss the optional subject “Fundamentals of the Orthodox culture”, religious lessons became compulsory in schools in the regions. Teaching of Orthodoxy as a compulsory subject is theoretically against the law, but the authorities claim that it´s just «the culture» of the Orthodox religion and not religious indoctrination.

Orthodox lessons are spreading all over the country
At the present time this subject is taught in 11 Russian provinces. Among those, Kaluga, Smolensk, Kursk and Belgorod provinces introduced teaching of the Orthodox Culture as the compulsory class; in 2007 Tver and Ryazan will also join. This educational program, which was designed to be taught for ten years, was developed at Theological Faculty of Belgorod State University. Moreover, in Belgorod province authorities responsible for education even invented the “high school graduate ideal,” which expects a teenager to be patriotic, tolerant, humble, respectful to the elders, etc. The “Orthodox Culture” is planned to be instrumental in achieving this government-sanctioned ideal. In addition, up to 80 kindergartens in Smolensk province either teach or plan to teach the subject to children. Small children are acquainted with hagiography and visit so-called holy places.

Against the Law
Institution of the subject “Fundamentals of the Orthodox culture” as a compulsory one is contrary to international legal regulations and legislation of the Russian Federation, including the federal law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Unions”. Besides, according to the Ministry of Science and Education “this subject isn’t and couldn’t be compulsory for all schools in the country and even for all schools in some regions of the Russian Federation”. The course can be instituted only if a School Board makes such a decision and parents support this initiative. Furthermore, the course could be either an optional subject (over and above the curriculum) or a subject by the choice of a student. At the same time Minister of Science and Education Fursenko said that he didn’t approve the new subject as in his opinion “History of World Religions” must be thought instead of “Fundamentals of the Orthodox culture”. “Our country is too big and it includes different faiths. We should be tolerant”. It’s interesting that he addressed this statement not to the Public Prosecutor Office or to the court but to the Public Chamber…

The Church interprets discrimination differently
According to representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, the new course is “à must” and having doubts in it is the same thing as to challenge the course of Russian language. They try to convince parents of legality of the new practice, explaining that children won’t have the special course of “Zakon Bozhiy” (God’s Law), but they will study the Orthodox culture. “Fundamentals of the Orthodox culture” as an optional course is a complete failure. Because an optional course presents discrimination of those children, who want to learn more about the Orthodox culture of their country”, – said Archbishop Ryazanskyi and Kasimovskyi Pavel.  Lobbyists of “Fundamentals of the Orthodox culture” subject explain that this subject must be introduced because Russian people present a majority in number and they would like to see in a classroom not only math and literature teachers, but also parsons. So by 2010 they plan to train more than 10 thousand teachers of the “Fundamentals of the Orthodox culture” from the graduates of seminaries and civil teachers. As a result their number will increase by 2.5 times. The number of state-governed Orthodox schools will also increase by 2.5 times. 

Ground for xenophobia
“Fundamentals of the Orthodox culture” – it’s a cover up, in fact, what kind of culture could be in the first or second forms? There are just Orthodox fundamentals. And what kind of Orthodoxy is it? It’s catechism, which means plainly teaching religion. It causes many problems. Instead of preaching in a cathedral, the Church wants to shift its functions onto the state, – said Gleb Yakunin, member of the Moscow Helsinki Group. Editor in chief of the journal “Religion and Law” Anatoliy Pchelintsev also critisized the innovation: “I reject vigorously this course.  The trouble is that the subject has already been imposed. It won’t be an optional class as they promise. Who doesn’t attend lessons will have different problems. Moreover, taking into account that there is no elementary culture of relations among different confessions in our society, this subject will be able to explode the society”.  The Chairman of the Islamic Committee of the Russian Federation Geidar Djemal describes the situation: “Imagine that there are Tajiks, Kirghizs, and Caucasians in the class. If they refuse to study this discipline, although they present a minority, there could be tension and animosity in the class. As a result the Russian Orthodoxy is an instrument of control. To all appearances, totalitarian-bureaucratic system, which has been slowly crystallizing in the Russian Federation again since 1991, can’t exist without universal and common ideology”.