At least two primary-school classes were subjected to such discriminatory practices. Instead of the scheduled Polish or biology lesson, the headteacher arranged an ad hoc religion cover lesson. Several children in both classes do not attend religion lessons. They spent that time in the after-school club.

We asked Beata Sulska, head of the Social Affairs Department, about the matter. She referred the question to the school headteacher, who is responsible for arranging cover lessons. We have been waiting for a response for two weeks…

We asked the president of the board of Fundacja Wolność od Religii whether religion lessons can be used to replace other subjects.

“It is not permissible to conduct so-called ad hoc cover lessons consisting of holding a religion lesson instead of a lesson in another subject when not all pupils in a given class have declared that they attend lessons in that religion,” explains Dorota Wójcik, president of the board of Fundacja Wolność od Religii. “This is harmful to pupils who do not attend religion lessons: they stay in the after-school club or library for ‘supervised activities’ instead of exercising the constitutional entitlement of parents and pupils, namely the right to education. As a rule, the school management ‘forgets’ to make up these lessons, meaning that the school fails to fulfil its primary mission and violates the provisions of the Constitution, including the right to education. The headteacher is responsible for this situation,” Dorota Wójcik adds.

The president of the Foundation also said that in this matter it is very important to emphasise every child’s right to education. Article 70(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland states:

Everyone has the right to education. Education is compulsory until the age of 18.

“In the Foundation’s view, assigning religion teachers to cover compulsory lessons violates the aforementioned constitutional right,” Dorota Wójcik reports. “Such cover means that the scheduled subject lesson cannot take place, and schools have not developed procedures for making up such classes in another way. It would be much more appropriate to assign cover lessons to other teachers of compulsory subjects, because they can then deliver the curriculum prescribed for that stage of education. In such a case, children do not lose that one hour of compulsory instruction. Under the Act of 26 January 2021 – the Teachers’ Charter (Journal of Laws of 2021, item 1762, Article 35(1)), ‘In special cases, dictated exclusively by the need to implement the teaching programme, a teacher may be required to work paid overtime in accordance with their specialisation,’” the president explains.

The president of Fundacja Wolność od Religii encourages parents in such situations to contact the school management directly, asking it to stop the discriminatory practices described above, which violate the Constitution and discriminate against pupils.

We have written about the high costs borne by society in connection with teaching Christian religion in state schools in the article: We know how much the city pays for teaching religion in primary schools and preschools. That amounts to almost PLN 920,000 annually in preschools and primary schools alone.

This information may also be useful: How to withdraw from religion classes at school?

We encourage you to visit apostazja.eu, where you can find basic, practical information about leaving the Catholic Church.