Religious Education in Ellas (Ελλάς): Greece
The framework for RE in Greek schools
According to the article 16 of the Greek Constitution (1975), a central aim of public education is “to develop the religious consciousness of the pupils”. Article 3 of the Constitution states that the prevailing religion in Greece is the Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ. Therefore, the Constitution is often interpreted as obliging the state to provide RE within the Eastern Orthodox dogma. Moreover, the Church of Greece has the right to be heard in state education matters related to religion and the Church. After 2001 Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs as well as experts started to interpret the article 16 as expressing the state’s obligation to provide pupils with an education that develops their religious identity.
The framework for RE in Greek schools is provided by the basic Law for Education (1566/1985) which orders that all students on a mandatory basis have to have been taught the ‘authentic’ tradition of the Orthodox Church (article 1, paragraph 1). Besides article 13, paragraphs 1-2 of the Constitution guarantee the basic right to freedom of religion and associate it with the development of religious consciousness. Moreover, according to the Law 1566/1985 the State has to provide RE to any religious community who wants to organize its RE on the condition that 5 students would apply for it. Since 2013 it is only the Roman Catholic community that this has applied to, although generally they have followed the official Curriculum and textbooks relating to Greek RE. There are a number of Muslims including migrants and the Muslim minorities in Thrace (North Greece), together with minorities of other religions. Only native Muslims who live in Thrace are recognized as a minority according to the Lausanne Treaty (1923). They are entitled to a bilingual educational system which is was attended by approximiately 11,000 students (2003 figures). At the same time an increasing number of Muslim adolescents register at Greek Secondary schools in Thrace because the Minority schools could not satisfy all the applications due to their limited capacity. Since 2013, Greek Ministry of education has, also taken a step further to introduce an optional Islamic RE in the Greek state schools of Western Thrace. In accordance with the RE Curriculum, the Islamic RE will consist of two hours lessons per week. One hour of reading the Qur’anic texts in Arabic, and one hour devoted to the learning about Islam.
Every student has a right to be exempted from RE through an application, which must be signed by the two parents, arguing that he has reasons related to other doctrine, religion or religious consciousness, in general.
RE in Greece (2016-17)
Today RE is an integral part of education, an ordinary subject in the curriculum. In primary school RE starts at the age of 9 (Year 3) and continues for 4 years until the age of 12 (Year 6) for two hours per week. In the secondary school (Gymnasium) RE is taught in all three years. The state provides seven years of RE for all students as have all the previous curricula of compulsory education since 1985. There are 3 more years of RE in Lyceum (2 hours per week in the two first classes and 1 in the third) and 2 years in Vocational education (1 hour per week in the first two classes).
2016-17 has seen the statutorial implementation of a new RE Curriculum that stared to be developed in 2009. It was implemented as a pilot scheme for 3 years, from 2011 to 2014. The new Curriculum of 2016 is explicitly infused with European RE approaches although there is a basic layer of a denominational RE. The basic aim of the curriculum is religious literacy, it is focused on educating citizens so as to develop religious consciousness, to enable individuals to begin to make sense of conflicting and contradictory understandings of the universe and for their place and to be open to dialogue and tolerant of diversity. At the same time 'Learning about' and 'Learning from', terms, derived from the British pedagogical and epistemological experience as well as constructivist approach are used in the rational of the curriculum. RE provision has changed from a curriculum focused on content and aims to one oriented on process and results and as a product of emancipated teachers dominated by representation of learning actions and interactions that facilitate students to enquire, construct and evaluate knowledge by themselves.
The basic criteria for the actions and interactions that the curriculum seeks to promote are:
As a result, the impact of the particular criteria is significant on the content of RE. The content of RE remains basically Christianity (Orthodoxy and other Churches and denominations), religions of the book (Judaism and Islam) and other world religions (Hinduism, Buddhism). Nevertheless the constructors of the Curriculum officially declared that the new Curriculum in any case is not confessional or catechetical. The new curriculum not only is still founded on the Orthodox theology and tradition but also its aim implicitly is to construct open minded religious identity.
Finally, to sum up the current Greek situation, it is vital to comment on the basis of the pedagogical approach to RE. Up until 2016, textbooks dominated everyday school practice. The Curriculum of 2003 remained content-focused, derived more from ‘Theology’ (related to a particular religion and faith) instead of ‘Religious studies’ (related to different religions, cultures and traditions). Despite the aforementioned situation in RE only a few parents wish to withdraw their children from RE even though it is possible by law and historically this has been the case with some minority groups.
During 2016-17, the State, after the opposition of the Orthodox Church and a number of RE teachers have published ‘student educational material’ for each year group to help support the changes to the curriculum since such a need appeared during the first year of the implementation.
Concluding, the new curriculum for RE provides a basic constructivist approach to teaching and learning from and about religions. The study of world religions is estimated at 10% of the whole RE curriculum. The content remains basically Christian in Greek compulsory education. It is, however, the most radical change in RE after the establishment of the Greek State in 1832 due to its pedagogical persective and its philosophical basis of the curriculum.
According to the article 16 of the Greek Constitution (1975), a central aim of public education is “to develop the religious consciousness of the pupils”. Article 3 of the Constitution states that the prevailing religion in Greece is the Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ. Therefore, the Constitution is often interpreted as obliging the state to provide RE within the Eastern Orthodox dogma. Moreover, the Church of Greece has the right to be heard in state education matters related to religion and the Church. After 2001 Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs as well as experts started to interpret the article 16 as expressing the state’s obligation to provide pupils with an education that develops their religious identity.
The framework for RE in Greek schools is provided by the basic Law for Education (1566/1985) which orders that all students on a mandatory basis have to have been taught the ‘authentic’ tradition of the Orthodox Church (article 1, paragraph 1). Besides article 13, paragraphs 1-2 of the Constitution guarantee the basic right to freedom of religion and associate it with the development of religious consciousness. Moreover, according to the Law 1566/1985 the State has to provide RE to any religious community who wants to organize its RE on the condition that 5 students would apply for it. Since 2013 it is only the Roman Catholic community that this has applied to, although generally they have followed the official Curriculum and textbooks relating to Greek RE. There are a number of Muslims including migrants and the Muslim minorities in Thrace (North Greece), together with minorities of other religions. Only native Muslims who live in Thrace are recognized as a minority according to the Lausanne Treaty (1923). They are entitled to a bilingual educational system which is was attended by approximiately 11,000 students (2003 figures). At the same time an increasing number of Muslim adolescents register at Greek Secondary schools in Thrace because the Minority schools could not satisfy all the applications due to their limited capacity. Since 2013, Greek Ministry of education has, also taken a step further to introduce an optional Islamic RE in the Greek state schools of Western Thrace. In accordance with the RE Curriculum, the Islamic RE will consist of two hours lessons per week. One hour of reading the Qur’anic texts in Arabic, and one hour devoted to the learning about Islam.
Every student has a right to be exempted from RE through an application, which must be signed by the two parents, arguing that he has reasons related to other doctrine, religion or religious consciousness, in general.
RE in Greece (2016-17)
Today RE is an integral part of education, an ordinary subject in the curriculum. In primary school RE starts at the age of 9 (Year 3) and continues for 4 years until the age of 12 (Year 6) for two hours per week. In the secondary school (Gymnasium) RE is taught in all three years. The state provides seven years of RE for all students as have all the previous curricula of compulsory education since 1985. There are 3 more years of RE in Lyceum (2 hours per week in the two first classes and 1 in the third) and 2 years in Vocational education (1 hour per week in the first two classes).
2016-17 has seen the statutorial implementation of a new RE Curriculum that stared to be developed in 2009. It was implemented as a pilot scheme for 3 years, from 2011 to 2014. The new Curriculum of 2016 is explicitly infused with European RE approaches although there is a basic layer of a denominational RE. The basic aim of the curriculum is religious literacy, it is focused on educating citizens so as to develop religious consciousness, to enable individuals to begin to make sense of conflicting and contradictory understandings of the universe and for their place and to be open to dialogue and tolerant of diversity. At the same time 'Learning about' and 'Learning from', terms, derived from the British pedagogical and epistemological experience as well as constructivist approach are used in the rational of the curriculum. RE provision has changed from a curriculum focused on content and aims to one oriented on process and results and as a product of emancipated teachers dominated by representation of learning actions and interactions that facilitate students to enquire, construct and evaluate knowledge by themselves.
The basic criteria for the actions and interactions that the curriculum seeks to promote are:
- to contextualise knowledge with everyday life,
- to support the acquisition of knowledge together with its implementation,
- to present current issues, related to students' lives
As a result, the impact of the particular criteria is significant on the content of RE. The content of RE remains basically Christianity (Orthodoxy and other Churches and denominations), religions of the book (Judaism and Islam) and other world religions (Hinduism, Buddhism). Nevertheless the constructors of the Curriculum officially declared that the new Curriculum in any case is not confessional or catechetical. The new curriculum not only is still founded on the Orthodox theology and tradition but also its aim implicitly is to construct open minded religious identity.
Finally, to sum up the current Greek situation, it is vital to comment on the basis of the pedagogical approach to RE. Up until 2016, textbooks dominated everyday school practice. The Curriculum of 2003 remained content-focused, derived more from ‘Theology’ (related to a particular religion and faith) instead of ‘Religious studies’ (related to different religions, cultures and traditions). Despite the aforementioned situation in RE only a few parents wish to withdraw their children from RE even though it is possible by law and historically this has been the case with some minority groups.
During 2016-17, the State, after the opposition of the Orthodox Church and a number of RE teachers have published ‘student educational material’ for each year group to help support the changes to the curriculum since such a need appeared during the first year of the implementation.
Concluding, the new curriculum for RE provides a basic constructivist approach to teaching and learning from and about religions. The study of world religions is estimated at 10% of the whole RE curriculum. The content remains basically Christian in Greek compulsory education. It is, however, the most radical change in RE after the establishment of the Greek State in 1832 due to its pedagogical persective and its philosophical basis of the curriculum.
This report was written by Marios Koukounaras Liagkis, the EFTRE representative for Greece - May 2017