School principals are not ready for prayer rooms

Prayer rooms may appear in Russian schools following the consideration in the State Duma of amendments to Article 16 of the law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations” and the bill “On Education”.

The idea to equip schools with rooms for prayer belongs to the head of the legal service of the Moscow Patriarchate, nun Ksenia (Chernega). According to the nun, this does not violate the principle of the secular nature of education in state institutions, because there are prayer rooms in orphanages, prisons, hospitals and nursing homes. PublicPost asked Moscow school principals if they were ready to open prayer rooms for their students.

Yuri Zavelsky, director of gymnasium No. 1543:

"In our school this is unrealistic for two reasons. Firstly, I simply do not have such a room, but this is a purely technical difficulty. And secondly, I cannot agree with this idea, because the school, like religion, is separated from state. I don’t understand at all why the patriarch speaks on state television and talks about some things. By the way, he can talk about something quite interesting, but why is it shown on state television? I ask myself this question all the time and not? I can answer.

If you want to pray, then please: when school is over, go to church, synagogue, mosque... Wherever! And pray as much as you want. Moreover, we do not have this subject in school ( Fundamentals of religious cultures and secular ethics - editor's note). I gave up on this idea."

Nadezhda Timashkova, director of gymnasium No. 1587:

“We are a secular state. We are separated from religion. We do not even consider in any way the possibility of allocating prayer rooms. Imagine how many representatives of faiths I have here: both Orthodox and Muslims. I don’t have enough premises for the children! We need game rooms, We need premises for technical work. We struggle so much here with these premises. How can I even think about such prayer rooms?

Alexander Kovaldzhi, Deputy Director for Science at the Second School Lyceum:

“Everything is possible with us. We are forced people, if we are ordered to do something, we will not go anywhere. But the question is how good it is and what will come of it. According to the Constitution, religion is separated from the state, so such a combination is very undesirable. I believe that education is another matter. What traditions, mentalities and religions there are - this is important to know in modern society. But to organize a multicultural church at every school so that students can pray...

I think this amendment will not be considered at all."

Tatyana Protasova, director of school No. 1950:

“I know that this question is still open, but it is unlikely to take place. Firstly, because the school is a secular institution, therefore it is unlikely that they will be allowed to introduce this, let’s say, science so deeply in the school.

We are a multicultural school and we are proud that there have never been any incidents regarding this matter. Relations did not worsen even after the introduction of a new subject on the basics of religion. We did not escalate this topic with our parents, and everything went smoothly.

I hope that this idea about prayer rooms will not pass, otherwise there will be an explosion of society. I hope that smart heads will come along and understand that there is no need to joke like that with education.”

Yuri Tikhorsky, director of the boarding school "Intellectual":

“These are some strange rumors. I have not heard such information. The initiators of the amendment are not representatives of the state. I’m not even going to comment on this, the law “On Education” has a huge number of amendments that anyone can make. And then these amendments can be adopted or not accept."

It is planned that the State Duma will adopt the bill “On Education” by the end of December and the amendments will come into force on January 1, 2013.