The Association of Swieckie Catechets sent an open letter to the president of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, on a spiritual lesson at school. The organisation asked the president to challenge the amendment of the Ministry of Education to the Constitutional Court. According to the association, changes in the organization of spiritual lessons are unconstitutional and may lead to a decrease in the educational value of these lessons.
We remind you that the TK is now considered an illegal institution and issued by it pato-judgments are not published in the Polish Monitor. This situation makes it impossible for them to get legal power.
Criticism of the amendment
Criticism of the association besides stressed that the Ministry of National Education (MEN) did not get the required approval of churches and spiritual unions, which violates the laws. Consequently, the organisation considers that the president should exercise the prerogative of Article 191(1)(1) of the Constitution and file complaints against the regulation before the Constitutional Court.
Main reason for the objection
The main reason for the association's opposition is the plan of merging into 1 group of children from different classes. Under the fresh regulations, students of classes in which less than 7 students are enrolled in religion are to attend classes together with a class in which 7 or more students are enrolled in religion. "This means that students are deprived of the right to implement the programme basis of their confession," the association writes in a letter.
Call for action
The Association of Świeckie Catechets urges the president of Poland to take action to defend students' rights to appropriate spiritual education. They stress that the fresh government not only violates constitutional laws, but can besides negatively affect the quality of teaching religion in schools.
Full Content of the Letter
Below we print the full content of the letter sent by the Association of Swieckie Catechets to the president of Poland:
Request for a complaint to the Constitutional Court (remember that the Constitutional Tribunal is now considered to be an illegal institution and issued by the Constitutional Tribunal are not published in the Polish Monitor. This situation causes that they do not get the legal power of a legal document) on the Regulation of the Minister of National Education of 26 July 2024 amending the Regulation on the conditions and manner of organising spiritual learning in public schools and kindergartens.
Very dear Mr. President,
We ask you, as a guardian of the constitutional order in the Republic of Poland, to argue the gross violation of this order. On July 26th this year, Minister of National Education Barbara Nowacka issued a regulation that not only reconciles the constitutional rights of students attending spiritual lessons, their parents and spiritual teachers, but besides the legal order in force in Poland. This regulation provides for the creation of very many groups of students declaring their willingness to participate in spiritual lessons. specified groups would include students from different educational levels. In practice, this means that students are deprived of the right to implement the programme basis of their religion. For spiritual teachers, however, it means a abrupt failure of livelihoods, as there will be a crucial simplification in the staff of spiritual teachers if changes come into force from 1 September 2024.
The regulation was issued in violation of the law, as noted by many legal authorities, including, for example, Prof. Paweł Borecki from the University of Warsaw, which indicates that Article 12(2) has been infringed. Laws on the education strategy specifying that the conditions and manner of organizing religion learning in public schools and kindergartens are determined in agreement with churches and spiritual unions, which according to couples. 74 section 1 point 2 of the principles of legislative method established by the Decree of the Prime Minister of 20 June 2002 means the request to get explicit approval of churches and spiritual associations. It should be noted that the Minister of National Education did not get specified approval, and therefore, by issuing this regulation, the fundamental constitutional rule of legalism that public authorities operate on the basis and within the limits of the law was broken.
We so request the president to appeal the regulation to the Constitutional Court in accordance with the presidential prerogative referred to in Article 191(1)(1) of the Constitution. Furthermore, we believe that the Office of the president of the Republic will be the most appropriate to take action against specified a flagrant violation of the law by representatives of the Government. Therefore, one more time we ask that the substance be brought before the Constitutional Court.
With respect
Management Board of the Association of secular catechists
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