Religious instruction in Austria
The religious education in Austria is of recognized churches and religious communities for their member students issued each. It takes place as part of school lessons and is financed by the state. Students belonging to a specific church or religious society can cancel their religious education (ab. RU) (or be canceled by their parents if a student is not yet 14 years old). Conversely, students without religious beliefs can register for a RE as an optional subject.
Legal
Religious instruction in Austria is regulated by the Religious Instruction Act of 1949 (Federal Law Gazette No. 190, 1993 version). The religious instruction is a compulsory subject for all students of a legally recognized church or religious community members. Religious instruction is provided, directed and directly supervised by the church or religious society concerned. Religious teachers receive remuneration from the responsible regional authorities (federal, state) for their teaching work at public schools. The granting of the RU follows the curriculum designed by the respective church or religious society and approved by the Ministry of Education .
Cancellation of religious education “for reasons of conscience” can be done in the first five (according to circular of the BMBWK No. 5/2007) calendar days of a school year, by the parents of the student up to the age of 14, then by the (“religiously mature”) student himself Attending classes of another religion is prohibited for students who belong to a recognized religious community. Only a temporary presence at RU is permitted in the sense of supervision. The assessment (in the form of a grade) of the RU comes first in certificates. Non-denominational pupils or members of state-registered religious denominations can, upon request, attend classes at a church or religious society as an optional subject; such an application must be made in the first week of school.
In the smaller religious communities, cross-school groups are often formed. From a group size of 3 students, the RU only has one lesson per week, from a size of 10 students it is two lessons per week. Religion can also be the subject of the Matura examination if the student has attended RE in all school levels of the upper level (i.e. from the 9th grade).
The practice of religious education
Most schools currently have Roman Catholic , Protestant and Islamic religious instruction. If necessary, there are also RU of other denominations, such as Orthodox , Free Church , Alevi , Jewish and Buddhist .
One year after the recognition in 2013, the Free Churches in Austria began their own religious instruction, in which 1200 pupils took part in 230 locations in all federal states of Austria. A religious education journal attempted to characterize free church religious instruction.
Buddhism , recognized in 1983, began ten years later with its own religious instruction, in which 25 students took part. There are now 200 students, with participation in RU being handled easily; According to reports in the Standard and in the Wiener Zeitung , fewer than half of the registered students are actually present.
Statistics: number of participants in the school year 2016/17
The standard presented the current, partially rounded numbers of the participants in religious education:
Catholic: 607,112 students, 7,165 teachers
Islamic: 69,573 students, 578 teachers
Protestant: 40,500 students, 600 teachers
Orthodox: 12,000 students, 100 teachers
Free Church: 1667 students, 100 teachers
Alevi: 1,300 students, 51 teachers
Buddhist: 235 students, 13 teachers
Training of religion teachers
The religion teachers for secondary schools are trained at theological faculties of the universities, for compulsory schools at church educational colleges. At the KPH Wien / Krems a wide range of Christian denominations and religious communities are united with their training for religious instruction: Catholic, Protestant and Old Catholic, Orthodox and -oriental, Free Church, Islamic, Alevi and Jewish.
The attitude of the political parties
Denominational religious education is controversial among the parties. The Greens support its abolition, the ÖVP defends it. Ethics lessons should either take the place of denominational religious education (according to the Greens) or be compulsory for all students who do not take part in religious education (according to the ÖVP). This last option is currently practiced by some schools.
See also: Ethics classes in Austria
Web links
- State and Church Law in School and Religious Education (RU)
- Norms and laws on schools and religious education
- Republication of administrative ordinances regarding schools and churches / religious societies with regard to religious instruction and school attendance
- Participation of non-Catholic students in Catholic religious instruction
- Federal Ministry for Education, Art and Culture Information on religious education: implementation decree, basic information, participation, cancellation, grading, ...
- Literature by and about religious education in Austria in the catalog of the German National Library
Single receipts
- ↑ So Edwin Jung, the new chairman of the free churches, in an interview with ORF Religion in September 2015. In the 2015/16 school year, 1,500 students are already taking part.
- ↑ Franz Graf-Stuhlhofer : Corrections to Clemens Sanders' article on free church religious instruction . In: Theo-Web. Zeitschrift für Religionspädagogik 16 (2017), pp. 175–177 (Sander's article appeared in the same journal, vol. 15 (2016) pp. 295–309).
- ↑ Standard 2009 . "Out of 25 registered students, an average of eight to ten actually attend the lesson".
- ^ Wiener Zeitung 2013 . Of the 18 registered students, only 2 were present at the “local inspection”.
- ↑ The Standard of April 18, 2017: Who is attending which religious instruction
- ↑ Kleine Zeitung 2015 : “Greens for the abolition of religious education”.