Twenty five again

DECEMBER 24, 2010 SVETLANA SOLODOVNIK

The Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation is preparing to submit to the government a draft federal law “On Education in the Russian Federation.” The document is now posted on the ministry’s website so that everyone can take part in its discussion. Proposals for the text of the bill are accepted by e-mail fzobrazovanie@mail.ru . After its adoption, the current laws “On Education” and “On Higher Postgraduate Professional Education” will lose their force.

The Russian Orthodox Church, which has long been fighting for a secular school, also created a working group to develop amendments to the bill. The group was headed by the chairman of the Synodal Department for Relations between Church and Society, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin .

In particular, the following amendments are proposed for discussion in the Ministry of Education:

- provide educational institutions with the right to include in the content of educational programs religiously oriented educational courses, disciplines, subjects (modules) aimed at the study of Orthodoxy, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and other religions that form an integral part of the historical heritage of the peoples of Russia;

— the study of these subjects must be voluntary at the choice of adult students or parents (legal representatives) of minor students;

— the educational qualifications and level of qualifications of teachers of religious disciplines must comply with the requirements arising from the internal regulations of centralized religious organizations. The candidacies of such teachers must be agreed upon with centralized religious organizations;

— it is also proposed to coordinate with centralized religious organizations the content of confessionally oriented educational courses, disciplines, subjects (modules), as well as textbooks and teaching aids.

In the field of professional religious education we offer:

— provide for the possibility of licensing and state accreditation for religious educational institutions both for programs that comply with the federal GOST, and for programs developed by such institutions in accordance with their own educational standards;

— adopt a provision on mandatory recording (for the purpose of licensing and state accreditation of religious educational institutions) information about persons who have theological degrees and titles, along with information about persons who have academic degrees and titles provided for by the state certification system of scientific and scientific-pedagogical workers;

— provide for the right of educational organizations that have state accreditation to government funding.