| The city authorities agreed to introduce a religious elective in schools The Moscow Department of Education capitulated to supporters of teaching the history of religion in school. As Lyubov Kurneshova, first deputy head of the department, said at a press conference yesterday, it is possible that already in the next academic year such an elective will appear in the schedule of city schoolchildren.
“We understand that in order for children to be able to communicate with each other, respecting each other’s religious and cultural interests, such a course needs to be introduced,” explained Ms. Kurneshova. True, she made a reservation that the Moscow department still opposes the introduction in schools of a subject that tells only about the basics of Orthodox culture. “Moscow is a multi-religious city, and children of different nationalities live here,” she said.
Moscow has been defending secular positions in education for quite some time. Back in August 2003, the head of the department, Lyubov Kezina, categorically refused the course on the basics of Orthodoxy imposed by the Federal Ministry of Education. “We did not support the letter that came from the Ministry of Education on the introduction of the foundations of Orthodox culture. Our school is secular, state-run, separated from the church. If denominations want to open a school, then we are ready to help them do it. But then it won’t be a state educational institution,” she explained.
Ms. Kezina had to make concessions for the first time when the deputy mayor in the government of the capital, Mikhail Men, stood up for religious education at the end of February this year and asked the head of the educational department to familiarize himself with a textbook on the history of religions. According to Mr. Men, “if a young person wants to consider himself fully educated, he must know the history of religions and the essence of the main faith that dominates the country.” In the textbook proposed by the deputy mayor, more than half of the materials were devoted to the history of Orthodoxy, and the rest was divided between other traditional confessions in Russia.
The integrity of the capital's Department of Education probably softened the loyalty to the Russian Orthodox Church of the new Minister of Education and Science Andrei Fursenko. After a recent meeting with Patriarch Alexy II, Mr. Fursenko promised journalists that the history of religions would become a compulsory subject in the school curriculum. True, Moscow intends to continue to resist here. The heads of the city’s education department emphasized that they are ready to introduce only an elective course. Kirill VASILENKO |
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