Education minister says religion might be taught in schools from September 1

Minister of Education Leonid Bujor Friday said that religion could be taught in schools from September 1, 2010, but it will be an optional course. After the Ministry of Education formulates its official position on the issue, the Government will examine it, Info-Prim Neo reports. Leonid Bujor said his personal opinion does not coincide with that of His Holiness Vladimir, the Metropolitan Bishop of Chisinau and all Moldova, who considers that Orthodox religion should be a compulsory school subject. “At the present stage, religion can be introduced in schools only as an optional subject, from September 1. We are not sure we will manage to prepare the course by then. Everything depends on the results of the dialogue with the Moldovan Metropolitan Church and with the Bessarabian Metropolitan Church, which were asked to formulate proposals,” the minister said. Leonid Bujor also said that in November 2009, he received a letter from His Holiness Vladimir and 20 Christian-Orthodox NGOs, asking that religion be included in the school curriculum as optional subject. “We accepted the proposal,” Bujor said, adding that as minister he does not want to comment on what happened meanwhile, but will do it as vice president of the Moldova Noastra Alliance party when he has the occasion. The subject aroused controversy between the church, authorities and the civil society. The Moldovan Metropolitan Church and former head of the Security and Information Service Valeriu Pasat, who heads the initiative group for making religion a compulsory subject, intend to organize a referendum on the introduction of the subject “The Bases of Orthodoxy” in schools. But they should collect at least 200,000 signatures in favor of the referendum first. A number of nongovernmental organizations expressed their disagreement with this initiative, saying religion should be an optional subject so that the constitutional principle of separation of church and state be observed.