2024-08-27 15:18 update: 2024-08-29, 15:11
Photo: PAP/Albert Zawada
The first president of the Supreme Court (SN) has challenged a decree on religious education by the Ministry of Education to the Constitutional Tribunal (TK), Poland's top court, the SN press team reported on Tuesday.
Malgorzata Manowska made the request in response to recent petitions from the Presidium of the Polish Bishops' Conference and the Polish Ecumenical Council regarding the changes in the organisation of religious instruction in schools implemented by the new coalition government.
According to the authors of these petitions, when issuing a regulation, the education minister was limited to allowing representatives of the Churches and other associations concerned to express their opinions, whereas the Act on the Educational System requires the minister to act "in agreement with the authorities of the Catholic Church and the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church and other Churches and religious associations."
Manowska argued that the decree of July 26 violated the principle of the "consensual way of regulating the relations between the state and the Churches" and made it impossible to "teach religion in the way defined by the curriculum of the subject" as it allowed for the organisation of religious education in inter-class groups.
At the same time, the head of the Supreme Court asked the TK to suspend the application of the decree concerning the fact that it is due to enter into force as early as September 1. (PAP)
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