The Board of Directors of the Educational Union of Montenegro (UO PZCG) announced today "due to the announcement of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) that it will initiate the introduction of "religious education" or some form of education about religious traditions, they are of the opinion that education should be the priority of our society, and as such improvement would have to be sought in a different direction from the announced one".
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"We have repeated many times that we want schools that will provide young people with more than providing theoretical and academic knowledge. We have not hidden that we want education modeled after Scandinavian countries, that we want schools that provide numerous knowledge and skills, encourage art and sports, strive for the development of a happy , self-aware and independent young people, and all in conditional, spacious and equipped classrooms. When you provide us with that, add religious education as an optional subject," the statement of the Board of Education of the PZCG emphasizes.
They added that until then they can ask themselves "at the expense of what religious education will be taught".
"Will it be again, as with "Professional is key", at the expense of humanities programs? At the expense of art? Language? Sports? At the expense of mathematics, physics, chemistry? Informatics? Biology? Will the introduction of religious education directly affect better results on PISA tests ? Have any of the countries that have religious education researched it? We think that elementary functional knowledge should be our priority. At this moment, it is more necessary and we have all the conditions for the subject of civic education to return to the status of a compulsory subject, because there are already high-quality programs and textbooks which we worked on in our schools, and to the satisfaction of both students and teachers. We are also of the opinion that we should strive to introduce philosophy for children whose goal would not be to acquire philosophical topics, but to practice skills for critical and creative thinking about themselves and the world around you," the announcement reads.
The UO PZCG said that religion is a field of culture, that religious communities are a reality, and that they have their own needs and that society should meet them.
"However, education is also a field of culture, and it seems to us that these fields should not be mixed. In secondary schools in Montenegro, the History of Religion is studied, which is primarily taught by philosophy professors, whose role in the education of young people today is tragically diminished. At the same time, they are marketed to the public "attitudes" (the attitude has both an emotional and an active component, and we don't see that) about striving for a society of knowledge, humanism, democracy, but without philosophers. Today, when we can change everything, when we can send information about the virus to the body to build defenses, when we can break the atom, fly to the moon... we cannot defend ourselves against misinformation, environmental threats, threats of war and terrorism, thus reaching a personal level of insecurity," said the PZCG Board of Directors.
The announcement also states that representatives of the non-governmental association PZCG, interested in religious education in Montenegro, had meetings with representatives of the "Mehmed Fatih" Madrasah from Tuza and the Theological School in Cetinje.
"At those meetings, we showed that religious schools that want to work within the educational system of Montenegro can find support and partners in us. We also provide full support for the education of young people who want to shape their lives with religious tradition, to enable them to have knowledge that comes from the curricula of the state education system, and thus valid diplomas, certificates and certificates. The education of these young people is of general interest," the announcement reads.
They also state that the PZCG believes that the state of Montenegro should show readiness to meet the needs of religious communities for the preservation and cultivation of religious traditions through religious education, but according to them, it should be carried out within religious schools.
"Support to religious communities to preserve their heritage in religious schools and, along with religious tradition, acquire valid knowledge needed for the labor market and fully contribute to the personal development of students and the development of society. In a secular, multi-religious, multi-ethnic state, in this time of turbulence, social crises and crises moral values, we believe that it is by no means a good moment to introduce religious education in public schools," the announcement concludes.
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