General attitude towards religious education in

keep in mind sharp discussions against religious education going on in Estonian media during recent years, but not in Russian media. Mostly the attitudes towards religion at school are shrunk to the question of religious education at school. The attitudes mirrored in media regarding religious education are usually not personal, as most of people in Estonia do not have any experience of religious education. In the case of REDCo project the sample has both groups represented, students without experience of religious education and also a mino-rity group in Estonia, students with their own experience of religious education.

If asked about the possible place of religion at school students saw it only in terms of the subject religious education. In the sample, the answers are

polarised into three groups – equal numbers for those who are opposed and those who are in favour, and some who think it should be voluntary subject.

Following I consider the students’ reasoning more closely.

Reasons against religious education could be grouped into three main sets:

seeing religious education as a confessional subject, an overloaded timetable, and dissonance with the aims of curriculum and its scientific approach.

1. Many students without any experience of religious education or with experience of a confessional Orthodox school, regarded religious education as a confessional subject, its purpose being to teach students to believe. In the view of these students such a subject cannot have any place in school, because they could not imagine it in a secular school with children from different religious, and especially non-religious, backgrounds.

“No. Why should it be? I don’t believe in God!” (f-nr-37-B?)

“No. Because there are students with different confessions at school.” (m-or-29-B?) Usually this confessional approach interpretation of religious education is joined with the comment that such a subject could be taught at school but it should be voluntary for the student. Students proposed, that those who want such (confessional) instruction could attend some studies organised by faith communities and special religious schools or look for other sources of information – books or internet. Religion was also seen as a private matter.

“No. Religion – it is a private matter. If you wish – study, if not – don’t. There is no need to force people.” (f-nr-40-B?)

2. In Estonia it is common knowledge that the students’ timetable is overloaded.

The students know this from their own experience, so their point concerning that question is well justified. Sometimes they also stated that the subject is not really interesting for them.

“There are too many lessons and tests already at school, so an additional subject (religion) would overload students who are not interested in that topic.” (f-nr-52-C-)

3. Religion was also seen as contradictory to all the other subjects and the aims of school to promote a scientific worldview. Again, special institutions offering religious studies were named by Orthodox students. Religion does not fit into school system; even the low academic attainment of former students from a religious school is mentioned.

“No. It is just another surplus lesson and even more children from the eccle-siastic school have poor academic achievement.” (m-at-26-B?)

Although religious literacy is not explicitly regarded as contradictory to school, some students found that there are more urgent skills to be learned.

“No. Because you must teach children professions, not religion nowadays. You can study religion yourself if you want to.” (f-or-33-B?)

Reasons given for religious education are three-fold: the interest of the topic, its relevance to everyday life, and moral-religious reasons are taken into account. I will look at each of these in more detail.

1. Most of the students in favour of religious education regarded it as an interesting, even exciting topic. Some students gave hints about things they would be interested in or like to learn: basic information about different religions, bible stories and parables, discussions about books and films.

Engaging with religion is regarded as something that broadens one’s worldview and helps to understand the world.

“Yes, because everyone should know basic rules about different religions. So one can better understand the world.” (m-at-72-C+)

“Yes, I have a feeling that religion is exciting. There are many interesting stories in bible what make you think. I love parables. I think that more such films as

“Code of da Vinci” must be produced.” (m-or-28-B?)

2. One of the students came up after filling in the questionnaire and asked for advice on how he should behave in a Muslim country. He was going to a Muslim country soon with a sports team and felt uninformed. Some answers mirrored the same concern – religious education should belong to school, as it is needed when one visits a foreign country, both in terms of appropriate behaviour, avoiding offence to others, and in terms of understanding the culture.

“Certainly should be. As it educates and is useful for us. If you are going to another culture you know something about it.” (f-nr-70-C+)

3. Also religious and moral explanations were put forward. When religious education was seen as a confessional subject, then it was regarded as a means to introduce God and religious worldviews to unbelievers. It was hoped that such a subject would improve students’ morality, even save young people from spoiling their lives. When religious education is viewed as a non-confessional subject it is considered to be a tool to nurture tolerance and to make a student more sensitive towards other religions.

“Yes, it should. Because you shouldn’t take other’s belief just like “we are the important ones and they are nobody” and it would be good indeed if we knew more about other religions.” (f-nr-16-A+)

“Yes, I think so, because studying different religions nurtures tolerance.” (f-nr-67-C+)

“Yes because children must know who God is and what the religious world is.”

(m-or-42-B?)

There was also a group of students who suggested that religious education could be a voluntary subject, organised only for those who need it. This group was

distributed equally among these who had studied religious education and those who had not. The rationale brought forward reflected the same range of views as that put forward against religious education – understanding religious education as a confessional subject or an overloaded timetable, but the most common explanation was lack of interest. Only in one case were tensions with families’ religious convictions mentioned.

“It [religious education] should be [part of the school life]. But it should be voluntary because maybe somebody doesn’t want to study it; that puts him off or disturbs his family somehow. In our school it is voluntary but you can opt out only if you submit a letter with signature of a parent.” (m-nr-13-A+)

“I really don’t know. But at the same time I think if there are believers in a school somewhere, then why not.” (f-nr-56-C-)

It is possible to discern a very strong connection between the school and student attitude towards religion at school: most students of School B (a school teaching predominantly in Russian) dismissed the idea of any form of religion at school, only two saw it as necessary and one thought it could be accepted under certain conditions. Two respondents from School B, who thought it possible to have religion at school, had a religious background (and so had perhaps attended a religious school). In other schools students were more positive about religious education. So, could it been concluded that Russian-speaking students would not want religious education while Estonian-speaking students do? If to look at the data not from a socio-demographical perspective but in connection with students’ experience of having religious education or not, the picture comes more clear. The students do not want religion at school if they do not have it at school (School B and School C grade 9) and they see at as needed or at least as a possible subject if they have had it (School A, School C grade 10). In School C, in the class with no religious education half of the students do not want any form of religious education. By contrast, in one class with religious education the resolute ‘No’ is used in only two cases and not at all in the other class.

There was a higher degree of agreement with religious education in School C grade 9, where students did not have religious education, than in School B.

Even if it was higher than in School B, it was remarkably lower than in the grades with religious education. The better attitude towards religious education compared to School B could be influenced by students from upper levels, as was clearly stated in one of the answers.

“In my opinion there should be religious education at our school. My friend has it at school and it is known to be interesting.” (m-nr-54-C-)